A semester-long study abroad model for engineering students: The unified project approach

Study abroad programs have nearly doubled in the last ten years. Studies show that students who study abroad are better prepared for success in their respective fields of interest. This is no less true for engineering students. But engineering schools have been very slow accepting the challenge of providing study abroad opportunities to students, due perhaps to the rigidity of most engineering curricula which were developed in the last century. This trend is changing, however. The largest increase in students studying abroad are STEM students — in 2012/13 9% overall were from STEM disciplines and 2/3 rd of these were engineering students. Many universities offer short-term study abroad programs for engineering students designed to be held during the summer. These short-term programs strive to accommodate those who cannot afford to delay their coursework. It can be suggested that semester-long programs provide greater cross-cultural benefits but providing a study abroad curriculum that fits the stringent engineering requirements can be difficult. The College of Engineering at The University of Oklahoma has developed an engineering study abroad program that offers key engineering courses chosen to fit a wide variety of discipline-specific engineering curricula. The key to success in any program is faculty involvement. In order to promote faculty involvement the course work is broken into concentrated four-week blocks taught by different engineering instructors, providing an opportunity for professors with active research programs to share their current expertise with the students in a foreign setting. In order to provide a cohesive educational experience, a Unified Project is developed that has components that relate to each course and which takes advantage of opportunities offered by the host country. This study model is expected to provide smooth transitions from one concentrated course to the next, while providing the students with the cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural experience that engineers will need to compete on a global marketplace.