MEETING THE NEEDS – WHAT DOES THE RAILROAD INDUSTRY NEED AND EXPECT FROM HIGHER EDUCATION?

摘要

Rail transportation and engineering education in the United States (U.S.) was neglected fordecades, due to lack of demand for graduates in the field. However, increase in freight railtransportation volumes combined with a growing interest in passenger rail development has re-energized the academic community. Currently, several universities are either investigating orimplementing rail-related activities.Because of the long disconnect between the industry and academia, several challengeshave arisen regarding what the rail industry needs and wants from graduates and universities.Some of the challenges include the quantitative and qualitative demands placed upon graduatesby the industry as well as industry preference for types of education and the perceived benefitsfrom university education and university-industry collaboration. The educational background ofcurrent industry employees and its importance on their career selection are also of interest.This paper utilizes the outcomes of two on-line surveys of industry employees to bringlight to the questions presented above. Over 1,000 industry employees participated in thesurveys that were conducted in 2006 and 2010. The second survey was conducted as part of acollaborative study between the U.S. and the European Union, allowing direct comparison ofopinions between the U.S. and international workforce.