STEM Higher Education Reimagined

DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The winter edition of Issues in Science and Technology is dedicated to reimagining higher education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Alan I. Leshner and Layne Scherer note that since 1995 more than 20 studies and reports on graduate STEM education have concluded that STEM education needs to be modernized. To do so, they argue, federal and state funding bodies should adopt funding criteria that shift professional incentives toward maximizing student success.  Johns Hopkins University president Ronald J. Daniels and Lida A. Beninson propose that reforming education and training for future biomedical researchers could be facilitated by a public-private council formed to develop coherent strategies for addressing a system that is decreasingly able to meet student expectations.

Critical of a harmful commitment to exclusivity—long accepted in the STEM research community—Leigh Miles Jackson and Tom Rudin explain that minority-serving institutions, which "enroll nearly 30% of all undergraduates in the United States," should be the secret weapon of America's future STEM workforce.  Meanwhile, Frazier Benya explains why sexual harassment should be seen as a research integrity problem. She proposes that academic efforts to deal with sexual harassment should be seen as a research integrity problem. On another troubling front, Ashley Bear and Smithsonian Institution secretary David Skorton tell us that (surprise, surprise) the labor market actually prefers students who have not just narrow STEM training, but strong writing, speaking, critical thinking, and cross-disciplinary integration skills.

Effective leadership will be a part of that story, and Wichita State University president John Bardo tells us how his institution is teaming up with nearby businesses to help drive regional innovation and job creation; University of Maryland, Baltimore County president Freeman Hrabowski III and co-author Peter Henderson, explain what it means to get serious about minority-serving STEM education; and Olin College president Richard K. Miller describes the groundbreaking approach to engineering education that he is spearheading.

Other articles address raising octopus in captivity for food, developing nuclear power in Africa, advancing space mining, the robustness of they system for ensuring the reliability of the US nuclear weapons stockpile, and the too prominent role of foundations in setting climate policy.

ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY is the award-winning journal of the National Academies, the University of Texas at Dallas and Arizona State University.   www.issues.org

Contact:  Kevin Finneran 202-641-1415

SOURCE Issues in Science and Technology

Related Links

http://www.issues.org