Taking Stevens Know-how to the World
Stevens has been making valuable connections in the global economy, among institutions of
higher education, corporations and students online worldwide—in initiatives that are
helping to boost the Institute’s reputation as a top university.
WebCampus, Stevens’ online learning program, has expanded by leaps and bounds,
including a nearly 25 percent increase in enrollment in 2006-2007, with more than 3,600
enrolled and revenues of over $9.2 million—a big jump from $6 million in revenue the
year before. Total enrollment since the program’s inception in 2000 has been nearly
14,000 and total tuition revenues $26.5 million.
And the Institute continues to establish cooperative agreements with universities around
the globe, in particular, in China and India.
“Having a presence in the two most dynamic world economies is an important strategic
move,” says Robert N. Ubell, executive director of the Stevens Institute for the
Advancement of Online Learning and Professional Education.
“These two countries are changing the global landscape, and we have to be a part of
that,” says Lex McCusker, dean of Stevens’ Wesley J. Howe School of Technology
Management.
An American business education from a university such as Stevens is incredibly valuable to
people living outside the United States, says McCusker. Technology commercialization is
seen as the “path to prosperity,” he says, and with Stevens’ niche in
Technogenesis®, the Institute’s academic programs are in great demand.
Growth markets
The Stevens China Program, which offers master’s degrees at several prestigious
universities in China, was honored by the Sloan Consortium as the Most Outstanding Online
Teaching & Learning Program this fall for its exceptional leadership and significant
contributions in advancing the field of online learning. It was the second award Stevens
received from Sloan.
More than 160 students are enrolled or have earned master’s degrees from three
Stevens programs in Beijing at Beijing Institute of Technology and the Central University
of Finance and Economics: Project Management, Telecommunications Management, and Photonics
and Optoelectronics.
Stevens Professor Audrey Curtis, director of Telecommunications Management and Project
Management programs, is in charge of the management-related degrees. Professor Hong-Liang
Cui, M.S. ’84, Ph.D. ’87, professor of physics and engineering physics, oversees
the photonics programs.
In the Stevens China Program, started about four years ago, one third of each program is
delivered online by Stevens faculty through WebCampus (http://webcampus.stevens.edu),
another third on-site by Stevens faculty visiting China for an intensive three to five
weeks, and the last third by highly qualified, U.S.-trained faculty at the host
institutions in China. (For more information on the program see www.stevens.edu/gradadmissions/China)
Established abroad
There are many opportunities around
the world for educational partnerships—lots of interest out there, says
McCusker—but Stevens is being selective because its resources are limited.
In addition to the China program, and a large selection of WebCampus programs, Stevens has
the following programs on-site around the globe:
• Dominican Republic:
Stevens has formed the Stevens Institute of Technology International (SITI) at the Cyber
Park in Santo Domingo. Two master’s degrees are offered, in Information Systems
Management and in Manufacturing Technology and Project Management. As a second prong of a
cooperative agreement between Stevens and the Dominican Republic, the Institute is
planning to create a center for pharmaceutical research there.
• Dublin, Ireland: Through the University of Technology
Tallaght, Stevens will be offering a program in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing starting in
early 2008. Pharmaceutical manufacturing is big business in the booming Irish economy,
with most of the top 10 corporations having a presence there. In addition, there are plans
to create an international center for pharmaceutical education at Tallaght, which has been
identified by the Irish government as the leading educational institution for the
burgeoning pharma industry. Dr. Constantin Chassapis, Hon. M.Eng. ’04, and Dr.
Richard Berkof head the Dublin program.
• Sofia, Bulgaria: Through
the University of Sofia, Stevens offers a master’s in Information Systems.
• Paris, France: A
master’s degree in Information Systems is offered through the Ecole Pour
l’Informatique et les Techniques Avancées (EPITA). Professor Jerry Luftman, Ph.D.
’91, is director of the Information Systems programs.
• Scandinavia:
Stevens’ reach also extends to Buskerud University College, Kongsberg, Norway, where
it offers a master’s degree in Systems Engineering, and to Växjö University,
Sweden, where it is sharing coursework for academic programs with local industry there,
said Dr. Dinesh Verma, dean of Stevens’ new School of Systems and Enterprises.
Stevens has also entered into partnerships with many corporations around the world,
including IBM in India and Southeast Asia, Nokia in Finland, and Skanska in Sweden, to
offer corporate education programs, said Verma.
A growing number of professional societies, such as the IEEE and the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, are partners in the Stevens WebCampus program and through it guide
professionals to the Institute to take courses and earn Stevens degrees. “The
WebCampus footprint is widening at a great rate,” says Ubell.
Also, Stevens faculty have done consulting for such international corporations as IBM, for
example, to help them determine and understand the current best practices in leadership
development among top competitors in the “hyper-growth markets” of Brazil,
Russia, India and China (known as “BRIC”).
Stevens has also engaged in or is exploring academic programs and research collaborations,
or consultant work, in Russia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Canada, the Czech
Republic, Serbia, Poland, Japan, Australia, Egypt, Ghana, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary
and Israel.
On the horizon
Stevens administrators continue to regularly travel abroad to investigate and discuss
opportunities for new partnerships.
For example, top officials from the Institute this academic year have been in discussions
with a leading technological university in India about establishing a “4-plus-1”
program, where, over five years, students would earn both a bachelor’s degree and a
master’s degree in Telecommunications Management or Technology Management.
In Pyeongteak, South Korea, Stevens is developing programs in Telecommunications
Management and Systems Engineering. In October, the Institute signed an agreement with
government officials to establish a graduate school and research centers in the next few
years. The Republic of Korea has approved $100 million to develop a campus site.
And in Singapore, the Institute recently entered into an agreement with Nanyang
Technological University to offer a dual master’s degree in Systems Engineering, and
to conduct collaborative research in the areas of systems and enterprise engineering and
architecting and in systems and enterprise management and governance.
All of this global outreach is designed to have a positive effect on Stevens’
reputation—as part of the Institute’s strategic plans to become recognized as
one of the top 50 research universities in the nation by 2012, officials say.
Branching out internationally is good for the visibility of Stevens, which traditionally
has had a stronger reputation in the Northeast and the New York metropolitan area than
nationally or around the world, they say.
Another interesting facet of this outreach effort is the realization by Stevens
administrators that even a small institution like Stevens, with limited resources, can
have a tremendous impact through the use of the Internet and smart strategic planning.
The Stevens China Program, for example, could not have been the successful, economically
viable program that it is, says Ubell, without leveraging the strength of WebCampus’s
online technology to offer top quality education at a lower cost.
One major university in the Midwest tried to start a program in Beijing but failed, partly
because they charged full U.S. tuition rates, said Ubell. Stevens, on the other hand,
limits on-site instruction by faculty to “intensive” weeks and employs online
learning strategies and partnerships to offer an effective academic program at attractive
rates.
—Peter C. Benedict |
