An Academic Partnership With Industry: A Win Win Situation

Technology is a rapidly changing field, it is monumental task for a college or university to keep pace with these changes. As corporate demand for specialized computer hardware and software training increases, it is becoming very challenging to find and retain full time faculty to teach in these areas, and to effectively integrate rapidly changing technology into our curricula. The University of Hartford’s S.I. Ward College of Technology has engaged in a successful strategic partnership with New Horizons Corporation to provide specialized computer training for students. This collaboration has provided the University and New Horizons with the ability to offer Microsoft certified training and certification testing for our students while earning University of Hartford credit. This program allows the University to keep pace with the changing technology needs of potential employers of our graduates while not requiring a significant investment of resources. This program has the potential to provide several significant outcomes; it can improve enrollment, increase corporate visibility of S.I. Ward College of Technology, offer our students marketable skills, serve local industry by providing lifelong educational opportunities for employees, and create a new income for the college. These outcomes have helped to foster an expanding and advantageous relationship between industry and engineering technology. This paper will outline the necessary steps to initiate, develop, assess, and gain university approval for these types of collaborative education agreements. These agreements between industry and academia can help us to meet today’s demand for rapidly changing technological educational needs. Introduction Technology and technology education are rapidly changing fields. It is a significant challenge for programs and higher education institutions to maintain pace with industry and its needs. As corporate demand for specialized computer hardware and software training increases, it is becoming very challenging to find and retain full time faculty to teach in these areas. It is also difficult to respond quickly and effectively to integrate rapidly changing technology into our curricula. The University of Hartford’s S.I. Ward College of Technology has engaged in a successful strategic partnership with New Horizons Corporation to help address these issues. This collaboration has provided the University and New Horizons with the ability to offer specialized computer software and hardware training and certification for our students. This program has had several significant outcomes thus far; it has improved enrollment, increased corporate visibility of Ward College, offered our students marketable skills, served local industry by providing lifelong educational opportunities for employees, awarded university credit for these courses, and generated income for the college. These outcomes have helped to foster an expanding and advantageous relationship between industry and engineering technology. New Horizons considers this a novel approach to a strategic partnership with the University of Hartford. New Horizons the World’s Leader in IT and Applications training across the globe has worked with the University to establish an ongoing relationship. In moving forward with our partnership we only hope we can add new programs to enhance the attendance and give students proper certifications to increase their earning potential and make each student more marketable to corporate industry. Discussion This partnership between University of Hartford and New Horizons Corporation was initiated in the spring of 2002 with New Horizons contacting the Dean of Ward College of Technology. In the summer of 2002 a plan began to take shape and progress was made as we proposed the program to university officials. Concurrently several individuals at the college were trying to identify a suitable college or program that could act as a home for the curriculum and while discussing a variety of pedagogical methodologies suitable to deliver the material. University administrators agreed that program had merit and we were given the blessing to move forward with initial the development of the program. We began the planning of the program by selecting courses that industrial contacts and New Horizons suggested were in great demand by employers. Interest in the program grew rapidly because “Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2003, American Society for Engineering Education” P ge 877.1 several area employers would now reimburse for these types of courses since they being offered by the University and would earn college credit. Table I represents the initial selection of courses offered as part of the program. TABLE I JOINT UNIVERSITY OF HARTFORD AND NEW HORIZONS COURSE OFFERINGS COURSE:[CREDITS] TITLE STW 391:[1] Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Operating Systems Essentials-MS2151 STW 392:[2] Implementing Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional and Server-MS2152 STW 392:[2] Implementing Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure-MS2153 STW 394:[2] Implementing & Administering a Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Service-MS2154 STW 490:[2] Designing a Secure Microsoft Windows 2000 Network-MS2150 STW 491:[1] Designing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Services Infrastructure-MS1561 STW 492:[1] Designing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Networking Services Infrastructure-MS1562 STW 493:[2] Administering a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database-MS 2072 STW 494:[2] Programming a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database -MS 2073 The next step was identifying the facilities necessary to teach the courses. It was decided that the best location to run these courses would be at the local New Horizons office. This decision was made since New Horizons had numerous excellent classroom facilities and computer laboratories, as well as having the ability to devote entire laboratories and hardware to the courses. Ward College’s computer laboratories would be unsuitable since they are multi-use facilities that are shared by several programs and scheduled in traditional one to one and a half hour time blocks. This also led us into a discussion of which faculty would teach the courses, University of Hartford faculty, New Horizons faculty or a combination of both? We ultimately choose to use instructors from New Horizons since they were already Microsoft certified instructors, had been through rigorous training, and had hands on experience with these courses. With these decisions made, we then embarked on the next step of negotiating a revenue sharing agreement between New Horizons and the University. When we reached a acceptable agreement we then began the tenuous task of creating the outlines for the individual courses and began the process of gaining university approval for the courses. This represented the first major hurdle for the program. A college wide debate began on whether or not these were suitable courses that should be offered by a TAC of ABET accredited institution. The debate was centered on three major concerns brought forth by the faculty. The first concern was the issue of education verses training, and the debate that surrounds this topic. This debate has existed in engineering and engineering technology schools and colleges for decades and resurfaces periodically as new topics and material come to light and the demands from industry change and often focus on specialized technical skills. Many faculty felt that these courses represented “training” and not “education” and our offering them might damage the reputation of the college and somehow jeopardize our accreditation. Some of the foundations of this belief are grounded in the culture and history of the college. Ward College as evolved from a vocational school of electronics to becoming a college with an enrollment over three hundred students offering five programs of study of which three are TAC of ABET accredited. The college is part of the University of Hartford, which also has a separate College of Engineering. It has taken significant time to shed the vocational school reputation and the faculty was worried that offering these courses may send a negative message that we are returning to training centered model. Although the courses are based on “technical training”, students learn a variety of software and software related skills and the content they provide is in high demand by both local, national, and even worldwide industry. Ultimately this argument and the support of the College’s Board of Visitors and the endorsement of individual program’s Industrial Advisory boards led the faculty to agree that this type of training was valuable. Recently the American Council on Education endorsed these types of Microsoft certification courses for college and transfer credit. The second concern of the faculty was surrounding the quality control of these courses. The faculty brought forth numerous valid concerns and questions. Among these were; What are the qualifications of the faculty that are teaching these courses and do they meet ABET criteria? How would we maintain control of the content of these courses when they are being run by New Horizons as an outside contractor and the instructors are paid by New Horizons and not the college? How can we insure that the material being taught is current and is the industry standard?. “Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2003, American Society for Engineering Education” P ge 877.2 We answered the first question of faculty qualifications by explaining that all of the instructors of these courses are first and foremost Microsoft certified instructors. The training and certification to teach these courses is very strictly administered by Microsoft and the instructors undergo very rigorous training and we are confident that these instructors are experts