Developing a Sustainable Collaboration Between a Four-Year and a Two-Year College to Enhance Student Access into Mechanical Engineering

This work in progress describes efforts by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University (GMU) to establish a framework of engagement with the Division of Mathematics, Science and Engineering at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) that meet strategic goals of GMU to increase access into its four year degreed programs and to develop pathways into its programs to increase the participation of non-traditional students and students from underrepresented populations in mechanical engineering, and to a meet the strategic goals of NOVA to produced graduates who are both work force ready as well as ready to enter a BS degree granting institution. The nation’s network of two-year community colleges was created initially to support the educational aspirations of those high school graduates interested in pursuing careers in the occupational and technical communities. More recently, community colleges are viewed as a platform for those seeking to further their educational pursuits by completing their studies at four-year institutions. With affordable, diverse offerings of programs from engineering to nursing, two-year community colleges have become attractive for not only traditional students but also for nontraditional students as well as for some underrepresented minorities and first generation college students who are unfamiliar with the collegiate academic landscape. Recognizing this value-added proposition, as well as the opportunity for community colleges to have an impact on the demand to produce more STEM graduates, efforts are now focused on improving the learning experiences of students matriculating through their programs. In this paper, we present our effort to establish a sustainable collaboration to meet the demand of producing more STEM graduates and of increasing the diversity of those graduates. With a goal of expanding to multiple departments within GMU, the collaboration was initially piloted in the ME department, and consists of a Dual Admission Compact agreement, referred to as the Compact, to increase access and engagement between the GMU and NOVA. Key elements of the Compact include a revised curriculum framework to improve transition between the schools and an enhanced assessment and evaluation effort to identify common student outcomes and assess their levels of attainment. Two cohorts of students – those admitted directly as first year students into the four-year institution and those who will enter from the two-year college via the Compact – will be monitored for student efficacy and student success.