New ABET Report Offers Recommendations for Higher Education to Scale Global Learning Opportunities for Students

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Diverse and global learning experiences for higher education STEM students are critical to solving the world’s greatest sustainability challenges, according to a new report by ABET, released this week at the WEEF-GEDC Peace Engineering Conference.

Sustainable Education: Readying Today’s Higher Ed Students to Tackle the World’s Grand Challenges, highlights how infusing humanities into STEM programs results in graduates who are better equipped to understand the global impact of their work.

The report features case studies from ABET-accredited programs at the University of San Diego, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Tecnológico de Monterrey that provide students with opportunities to develop as globally-aware citizens.

“The solutions to overpopulation, poverty and resource depletion aren’t found in textbooks or lectures,” says ABET Executive Director and CEO Michael Milligan. “A student’s ability to work through real-world challenges with peers across disciplines and cultures is critical, and it’s up to academic leaders to foster these experiences so that all may benefit from a more sustainable world.”

Sustainable Education includes practical ideas for institutions to develop and deploy global learning opportunities, including:

• Create opportunities to connect the traditional, the unexpected and the exceptional. The most powerful moments in teaching sustainability can occur when good design is applied in new and unexpected ways.
• Allow the educational experience to bleed into professional experiences and vice versa. Align with the business and social sector where students can apply user-centered design skills.
• Prioritize immersive experiences that reinforce diverse thinking, but don’t underestimate the value of a diverse classroom.

To download the report, visit https://bit.ly/2PRlj90.

About ABET

ABET is a forward-thinking, purpose-driven organization. All over the world, ABET accredits college and university technical programs committed to the quality of the education they provide.

Based in Baltimore, we are a global organization, with over 4,000 programs in 32 countries in the areas of applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology at the associate, bachelor and master degree levels. With ABET accreditation, students, employers and the societies we serve can be confident that programs meets the quality standards that produce graduates who are prepared to enter a global workforce.

Additional information regarding ABET, its member societies and the accreditation process can be found at www.abet.org.

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