The Case of an Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department in the Internationalization Process of a Research I Public Institution

摘要

Colleges of Engineering at US tier I public institutions have had a long-standing tradition of welcoming international students to their various programs, especially at the graduate level. Recently, the percentage of international students studying at the undergraduate level has also been increasing. Out of all the engineering disciplines, this is perhaps most frequently true for Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) programs. Despite the relative decline in US students interested in studying ECE as compared to other engineering disciplines, ECE programs remain highly attractive to international students who wish to come to the US to pursue the best education possible and acquire the knowledge and skills to meet their career and professional goals. Unfortunately, ECE departments, as is the case for the one we will describe in this paper, often find themselves having to turn away many highly qualified candidates because they are confronted with issues of capacity, so admission to highly ranked ECE programs remains extremely competitive in the US.