Two policies that will achieve engineering education reform

Abstract

Various studies have recommended the following reforms to improve US education: deregulate and stimulate competitive learning systems; redefine learning to instill concepts of teamwork and critical thinking in students; embrace global education standards; develop new performance scoring systems; reinvent academic research to include interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary learning; reduce the publish-or-perish paradigm; emphasize experimental learning; make more use of cyberspace; use the best new educational technologies; make higher education more relevant to current societal needs; and create an environment that enables learning as an ongoing, lifelong process. These reforms can be achieved through two policy steps: (1) introduce a much higher level of competition into education by shifting public subsidization from educational institutions to individual students; and (2) focus accreditation from the process or institution that provides the traditional setting for learning toward student outcomes.