Replacing A Bachelors Degree In Engineering Management With A Two Track Minor : A Case Study

The University of Evansville (UE) offers EAC-ABET accredited programs in Civil, Computer, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering, a CAC-ABET accredited program in Computer Science, and AACSB accredited programs in Business Administration and in Accounting. Since 1976, UE has offered a BS degree in Engineering Management which is a combination of fundamental engineering courses and fundamental business courses, together with electives. The degree was not designed to be ABET accredited and has never been submitted for evaluation. There were two “ideal” candidates for the degree; students who sought a career at the interface between engineering and business (e.g. technical sales, construction management) and students who wanted a second degree to compliment a degree in engineering or in business. In recent years, faculty interest in the program has been lukewarm and student demand has been very light. Often the program became a “bail-out” option for engineering students who were struggling with technical material or who decided that engineering was not the career of their dreams. Most of the students entered the program from engineering; almost no students came in through business. An opportunity to re-examine the program came with the hiring of two new faculty members, one in Mechanical Engineering and one in Business Administration. A small committee was formed to study the current program and offer suggestions for improvement. In addition to examining the program and its students, two external surveys were conducted: one of potential (local) employers and one of other schools which offered degrees in Engineering Management. After completing these surveys and a discussion with UE’s Business and Engineering Advisory Council, the decision was made to discontinue the degree and a new minor in Engineering Management was proposed. The minor is considered to be unique in that it has two completely different tracks, one to accompany an Engineering degree and another to accompany a Business Administration degree. This paper describes the history of the EM degree, the surveys conducted, and the two-track minor that was developed.