Enabling the U.S. engineering workforce to perform: Developing financial sustainability to ensure high-quality in professional graduate engineering education

This is the third paper in the panel session of the National Collaborative Task Force for reform of professionally oriented engineering graduate education to make it more relevant to the needs of industry to ensure a strong U.S. engineering workforce for competitiveness. This paper addresses \ the need for new funding mechanisms to initiate, develop, and sustain high-quality professional graduate education both at comprehensive universities and at research universities across the nation. In today's economy of tight university budgets, it is unrealistic to think that universities can initiate and sustain high-quality professional graduate programs without external support. Whereas scientific research is the primary focus at many schools of engineering across the country, and is supported directly by federal funding, it is now evident that professional graduate education does not fit this model of funding. This paper begins the exploration of new funding schemes in collaboration with industry and government support to sustain the increasing momentum for the advancement of professional education in engineering practice and technology leadership for 21^st century universities.