Although enrollments in engineering programs have increased slightly in recent years, there continues to be concern about preparing the number of engineers necessary to meet the work force needs of the United States to maintain technological competitiveness. Community colleges continue to represent a source of students who could potentially enroll in baccalaureate engineering programs after completing their studies at the community college, if a coherent curriculum were available that would ensure seamless migration to a bachelor's degree and graduation in a timely manner. Presented in this paper is the basis for a highly structured statewide Associate of Science in Engineering Science (ASES) degree program, and the manner in which baccalaureate programs build upon this degree to complete the expectations for a baccalaureate engineering degree. The degree, which has been implemented in Texas, represents the culmination of several years of effort to align coursework among multiple institutions. Further, the degree represents a significantly new approach to curricula development. The paradigm is changed from viewing curricula as a number of courses to viewing curricula as the development of a necessary body of knowledge for a discipline. As of this writing, the ASES degree has been adopted by several institutions. Significant benefits of the degree for the student are that it provides significantly more flexibility compared to articulated programs and it provides a degree completion time that is nearly the same as a student directly entering a baccalaureate engineering program as a freshman. Benefits of the ASES degree for the educational institutions include elimination of the need for multiple articulation agreements and the need to reverse articulate coursework to provide reliable retention and graduation data for accountability.
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