Considering the Future of Land Grant Ergonomics Education

Abstract

Current discussions of challenges and weaknesses of higher education are a source of tension in the early decades of the 21st Century. These discussions reflect the public role and impact of higher education in the early 20th Century with the growth of the land grand university model. Changing social dynamics regarding college-going populations, as well as agricultural and engineering innovations from 1900-20, help to provide context for the role of human factors and ergonomics training for public higher education and workforce productivity. Attempts to forecasting new models of higher education based on societal changes from 2000-20 are problematic, as suggested by agricultural changes from 1900 – 2000. The future of land grant (and human factors and ergonomics) education requirements are tied to our understanding of different historical models of higher education, and demands for matching employment skills and job prospects for new generations of economic, societal and technical challenges.