Dive Brief:
- Texas A&M University has partnered with four of the state's community colleges to provide a pipeline for students into its engineering program.
- The Texas A&M-Chevron Engineering Academy will allow students to take the first two years of their A&M degree at community colleges near their homes, taking one engineering course per semester from a visiting A&M instructor.
- Chevron donated $5 million to support the academy, in which students must maintain a 2.5 cumulative GPA to qualify for transfer into one of 16 engineering degrees offered by Texas A&M on its College Station campus.
Dive Insight:
The Texas Workforce Commission expects the state to need 43,000 more engineers over the next 12 years as the industry grows 19%. The Texas A&M program provides a way for low-income students and those otherwise tied to their hometowns for an extra two years an opportunity to participate in the growth industry, getting a degree from a respected four-year institution. Other four-year schools interested in expanding the diversity on their campuses might consider partnering with local community colleges to create similar programs that go beyond simple transfer agreements or bridges, but actually consider participants to be students of the four-year institution from the beginning.