Development of a Required International Experience for Undergraduate Engineering Students

The School of Engineering at Rensselaer has recently announced the REACH Program (Rensselaer Engineering Education Across Cultural Horizons) as a component of our undergraduate engineering degree that we envision will become a requirement for every student. The major feature of this experience will be a bi-lateral semester abroad with partner international universities, whereby students will spend a full semester studying abroad as a part of their educational program, and students from the partner university will likewise spend a semester at Rensselaer. The Program will begin in 2009 with approximately 25% of the then junior class growing to virtually 100% by 2015. The critical issues in developing and scaling up to such a large program of exchange will be discussed, along with the alternative international experiences that are also under development. We envision that this program will radically alter the culture of our undergraduate programs and our campus environment and will establish Rensselaer as unique among major engineering universities in terms of commitment to providing such an expansive global perspective for all of our students.