Two Policies That Will Achieve Engineering Education Reform

Various studies have recommended the following reforms to improve U.S. education: Deregulate and stimulate competitive leaming systems. Redefine learning to instill concepts of teamwork and critical thinking in students. Embrace global education standards. Develop new performance scoring systems. Reinvent academic research to include interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary learning. Reduce the publish-or-perish paradigm. Emphasize experiential learning. Make more use of cyberspace. Use the best new educational technologies. Make higher education more relevant to current societal needs. Create an environment that enables learning as an ongoing, lifelong process. These reforms can be achieved through two policy steps: (1) Introduce a much higher level of competition into education by shifting public subsidization from educational institutions to individual students. (2) Focus accreditation from the process or institution that provides the traditional setting for learning toward student outcomes.