Page 80 - Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century

Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11338.html

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATION 63

5. To train and otherwise prepare students especially and directly
for higher level administrative and operating functions.

HISTORY

In the 1890s, many colleges realized the need for better integration
of theory and practice. At Worcester Polytechnic Institute, regular shop
courses began operating a commercial shop and offering articles for sale.
Students worked in the shop for foremen/instructors. The school also
advised students to work in industry for 15 months between their jun-
ior and senior years. All of this was to be supplanted by an idea that
took shape in the mind of Herman Schneider, a civil engineering gradu-
ate of Lehigh University who had worked his way through school.
Schneider believed that his work experience had given him an ad-
vantage upon graduation. He researched the records of other Lehigh
graduates and found that most of those who had shown marked ability
in engineering during the early years after graduation had combined
industry practice with education through part-time jobs, summer jobs,
or simply by dropping out of school to work periodically. Schneider
concluded that the educational values of working exceeded the mon-
etary gains.
When he joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati in 1903
(as assistant professor of civil engineering), he envisioned a new kind of
institution that would blend theory and practice so students could pro-
vide industry with the services for which they were being prepared. In
September 1906, the first cooperative education program began with
12 students in mechanical engineering, 12 in electrical engineering, and
3 in chemical engineering. In the beginning, they alternated between
school and work weekly, then every two weeks, then monthly, then
quarterly.
Other schools soon followed suit: Northeastern University in 1909,
University of Pittsburgh in 1910 (although the program was discontin-
ued for many years and reestablished in 1987), University of Detroit in
1911, and Georgia Tech in 1912. In the early years, cooperative educa-
tion programs experienced various external and internal problems. Ex-
ternal problems included: resistance among employers; recessions/de-
pressions; wars; and resistance among labor unions. Internal problems
at schools included: hesitant faculty; scheduling and alternating pat-
terns; mandatory versus optional programs; and funding. Most of the
external problems are beyond institutional control, of course. But many

Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.