Leaders of the UW System and Wisconsin Technical College System are developing a new pathway transfer program for students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.
Speaking yesterday during a Wisconsin Technology Council event in Wauwatosa, WTCS President Morna Foy said the program isn’t finalized yet, but expects to make an announcement in the near future.
“Students will go through a two-year associate degree at a technical college, any technical college, and then they would be admitted as juniors into UW institutions in a number of STEM areas: biology, chemistry, math, physics, engineering,” she said.
Along with getting more students into STEM career pipelines, Foy said the program aims to make the transfer process easier.
“That has always been the number one problem — we promise it, we like the idea of it, everybody is externally saying ‘this is so great’ — but then when students actually try to do it, they encounter all sorts of problems,” she said. “We want to erase that.”
Yesterday’s event focused on the role of Wisconsin’s higher education systems in supporting and driving the state’s tech economy. UW System President Jay Rothman stressed the importance of preparing graduates for “the job that does not yet exist” by focusing on emerging industries and disciplines.
“Nearly 40 percent of our graduates today are in the STEM or health care fields, and that’s up 30 percent in the last 10 years,” he said. “We have really tried to … move toward where the demand is in the market, and what is necessary, what employers are telling us they need.”
Plus, he noted nearly half of the new programs launched in the last five years at UW System campuses are in STEM fields.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities President Eric Fulcomer noted independent institutions in the state are also focused on preparing their graduates for cutting-edge tech fields.
Of the association’s 22 schools, nine offer degrees in engineering, 14 offer computer science or information technology degrees, 15 offer math and statistics degrees and 17 offer biology or biomedical degrees. WAICU schools in 2021 awarded 2,500 STEM degrees, making up about 19 percent of all degrees for the year, Fulcomer said.
“Almost three-quarters of our graduates stay in Wisconsin after they graduate, so we are providing a significant number of students every year for the Wisconsin workforce,” he said.
Listen to a podcast from earlier this year with Fulcomer: https://www.wisbusiness.com/2023/wisbusiness-the-podcast-with-eric-fulcomer-waicu/
–By Alex Moe
