Over the past years, there has been a steady decline in the enrollments in most community colleges offering 2-year AAS degrees in electronics technology. The same for private technical colleges. In some cases, the enrollment declines have been so great as to cause colleges to close their departments or merge them into other departments. Mostly, electronic departments have survived although with fewer students and in some cases fewer faculty.
The big question is: What is going on here? Why is this happening and what can we do about it?
Already most faculty are aware of this problem and in some cases steps have been taken to improve the situation. But as I have gleaned from speaking with many of you, little or no improvements have been noted. The downward trend continues and unless something is done it may ultimately lead to the closing of your own department.
As the old saying goes, "If you keep doing the same old thing, you get the same old result." As a result, you are going to have to get out of your comfort zone and do something. We are already at that point where it is change or die.
In this blog, I will offer my own findings, ideas, suggested solutions, and related information. And I also want to hear from you. What have you experienced? What have you done? What is working and not working? What are your suggestions? Together, I believe we can find a way. Email me with your thoughts.
8 comments:
The driving force of any program is the job level, job security, and pay level for the graduate.
If industry wants to insure that it has a good supply of people, then it must, almost, guarantee that this is what the graduate finds. As they are waiting for the graduates at the end of the pipeline, they must become more active in helping us get students and helping us keep them in the program. If the pool dries up, they'll have to do this anyway to insure that their positions are filled with qualified people: they can pay now or pay (much more) later.
I think an important question is "what does it mean to be an electronics technician today?" Lou has pointed out that many different industries use variants of EETs such as an audio techs. Maybe the techs are out there under a differnt guise.
Also EET has become more integrated with other disciplines such as automotive where for example, microprocessor and semiconductor content has risen dramatically. Automotive techs also need for a systems level understanding as do today's EETs.
Maybe EETs have only partially gone away.
I forgot to mention our center is sponsoring a conference on semiconductors, automated manufacturing and electronics (same-tec.org) and we are devoting a two hour session to this topic on Wednesday July 27 in San Jose , CA. It is called emerging trends and technologies in electronics.
There is also a trend at some EE Programs to shift back towards applications and hands-on education. This was the realm of ET/EET. It becomes more difficult to attract students when they can get a job ready four year degree in EE versus a four year degree in EET. Hence the decline in EET enrollments
competing with ITT and others that offer AOS degrees hurt those traditional AAS programs. We feel the crunch at our school. What I think that is definitely needed is the retraining of the marketing personnel. How does ITT get students at $32k while our 2 year program costs 6K and transfers to 4 years schools???? ITT recruits aggressively where as our school uses the "if we have it they will come." Well it doesn't work - excuse - we don't have the money to aggressive recruit - well we won't have the money if they stop coming completely.
We are experiencing a severe decline in EET enrollment at our state university (both associate and bachelor's degrees). We still have employers looking for grads, but attracting students to our program continues to be very difficult. Declining state support and the resulting high tuition increases have taken their toll.
We have seen the EE program at our university become more like us (EET), in that they have added lab courses and front-loaded a non-calculus based introductory course into the freshman year. Their enrollment is flat, but at least it is not declining like ours is.
Recruiting programs in high schools help us feel like we are doing something to improve the situation, but in reality that doesn't seem to make much difference in our headcount.
Other schools have turned their EET programs into IT programs with some success, and we are even talking about merging EET with our MET program to create some sort of Electro-Mechanical ET program with a focus on industrial control systems.
I'm anxious to hear the rest of this discussion!
In Mississippi Community Colleges we are experiencing many problems.
1. The number of potential students is shrinking due to several issues. Parents want their kids to earned a four-year degree. 60% of all students that enter my campus require developmental courses (can't read, write or do math at the college level); therefore they are not high acheivers. The medical fields are hiring "like crazy" so quite a few student head in that direction.
2. Only 40 to 50 percent of the students who enroll are successful. Most of them have bought an automobile or truck, moved out of the home of their parents and want to experience life. They have to work to support themselves and their hobbies/girlfriends. So college is the last thing on their minds.
3. Almost all of the job postings/requests want experienced technicians. The market for graduates is in decline so those hiring can be choosy.
I don't have the answer because most of the problems are outside my control. I certainly can work on the 40 to 50 percent succes rate but not their pickup truck, their girlfriend, the work experience of my graduates, or the market for technicians that is in decline.
What textbooks are there to support the way we need to be teaching?
They seem scarce.
What lab equipment is needed for the systems level approach? Are there turn key systems available? Or packages that are adaptable?
What are the "new" skill sets?
What skills are common?
Post a Comment