Success of Joint Programs Between Junior and Senior Colleges

While the demand for highly skilled engineers is greatly increasing, minorities and women are not well represented in the engineering workforce due to inadequate secondary school preparation, the absence of academic support at many institutions, lack of academically intensive summer programs, and financial constraints, among others. Community colleges address many of the complex issues surrounding the under-representation of women and minorities in engineering by offering low tuition and a regular schedule of the remedial courses, as well as an array of support services such as tutoring, supplemental instruction, and mentoring. Joint/Dual (JD) programs between junior and senior colleges offer increased educational opportunities for underrepresented minorities in science and engineering fields who might otherwise be denied access to higher education. These programs are designed to provide students from junior colleges with the same curriculum as the first two years of an ABET-accredited engineering program at a senior college. Students entering the programs are granted dual admission to the community college as well as the senior college. Upon successful completion of the lower division courses and degree requirements for an Associate in Science (AS) degree in Engineering Science at a community college, students seamlessly transition to the upper division of the baccalaureate engineering program at a senior college. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the JD programs as well as a preliminary analysis of the success of the programs. Data from the JD program where students attend both the community college and the senior college at the same time for the first 2 years of their undergraduate study show that 44% of students graduated from the community college with an AS degree and a relatively high GPA average of 3.13. Community college retention rates were relatively for the first 2 years, indicating that students in the JD program have the necessary tools and support to remain in the program. Although 92% of those who graduated with an AS degree intended to matriculate at the senior college, only 53% actually took courses as a senior college student for at least one semester. Senior college retention rates were relatively high compared to retention rates for transfers from other community colleges into the major urban University system, indicating that once JD students make the transition from the community college, they are more likely to be retained than those who did not receive the same support and advantages as students in the JD program. Academic performance using semester GPAs shows that once students overcome the difficulty of adjusting to the senior college, their GPAs improve and they may be more likely to graduate. More data, especially from JD students who reach the senior college, are needed to fully assess the success of the JD program.