Issues driving reform of faculty reward systems to advance professional graduate engineering education: Expectations for adjunct industrial faculty

The third paper in this special graduate studies division panel session focuses on issues driving reform of faculty reward systems to advance professional graduate engineering education. Creative engineering practice and leadership of technological innovation to enhance U.S. competitiveness is mission critical to economic development and growth of jobs within the United States of America. The paper and presentation will addresses the need for appropriate recognition of adjunct industrial faculty in professional graduate engineering programs. As identified by the Council of Graduate Schools recently, faculty engaged in professional practice are a major attribute for developing and sustaining high-quality professional graduate programs in engineering and technology. Reward systems and professional recognition of these expert faculty must be improved in order to attract high-caliber, experienced, practicing engineers and industrial leaders from industry. Adjunct industrial faculty teaching in engineering and technology professional graduate programs add remarkable leading edge insight to the needs of industry to be more competitive. Because of current emphasis on research-driven graduate education and the university quest for federal funding, our nation's experienced professional engineering talent in industry has been one of the most underutilized U.S. faculty resources. The opportunity for innovative universities to better recruit, develop, and reward this unique resource of U.S. domestic engineering talent must not be ignored. Use of this experienced resource in combination with core university faculty, builds a formidable U.S. strength for engagement with industry to improve professional graduate engineering education for world-class competitiveness as a professional complement to the existing academic research strength.