The Newport Declaration
To Globalize U.S. Engineering Education
Editor's Note: For additional background about this statement, please see: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=ojgee
WHEREAS the world is experiencing dramatic geopolitical and technological changes which are continually revolutionizing transportation, communication, commerce, education, and life experience; and
WHEREAS these transformations are intertwined with rapidly increasing human population and resource consumption, and therefore bring about increased worldwide challenges and tensions; and
WHEREAS engineering is crucial to addressing these grand challenges facing the planet, and to thereby enhancing global peace and prosperity, and
WHEREAS collaboration on grand challenges builds a stronger sense of global community, and U.S. engineering students engaged in global outreach are uniquely positioned to be ambassadors for the nation; and
WHEREAS the national economy, competitiveness, security, and well‐being depend upon successful participation in a global, technology‐driven marketplace; and
WHEREAS the U.S. engineering culture brings ingenuity, boldness, and a results‐oriented mentality that are crucial to global collaborative progress, and
WHEREAS U.S. citizens tend to be poorly informed about nations and cultures and therefore underequipped to work effectively with international partners; and
WHEREAS all of the above have vital implications for the education of U.S. engineers;
IT IS IMPERATIVE that U.S. engineering educators and education adapt to the contemporary global environment; and
IT IS IMPERATIVE that all engineering students develop the skills and attitudes necessary to interact successfully with people from other cultural and national environments.
TO THIS END, we call on engineering educators, engineering administrators, and engineering policy leaders to take deliberate and immediate steps to integrate global education into the engineering curriculum to impact all students, recognizing global competency as one of the highest priorities for their graduates
TO THIS END, we call on funding agencies, foundations, and leaders in the private sector to shape their policies and priorities in support of these goals; and furthermore
TO THIS END, we urge that this document be widely distributed and endorsed by all key constituencies.
Composed and endorsed this 6th day of November, 2008 by the undersigned participants of the NSF‐supported Summit Meeting on the Globalization of Engineering Education, who are committed to its realization and who put it forward for consideration by the profession at large:
John Grandin, U. of Rhode Island, co-chair
Dan Hirleman, Purdue U., co-chair
Duane Abata, South Dakota State U.
James Bernard, Iowa State U.
Sigrid Berka, MIT
Steven Blair, U. of Utah
Gayle Elliott, U. of Cincinnati
Janet L. Ellzey, U. of Texas Austin
Lester Gerhardt, Rensselaer Poly. Institute
Claire F. Gmachl, Princeton
Hans Jürgen Hoyer, ASEE/IFEES
Thomas Katsouleas, Duke U.
Steven McLaughlin, Georgia Tech
Joseph Mook, SUNY Buffalo
Alan Parkinson, Brigham Young U.
Kurt Paterson, Michigan Tech
Richard Vaz, Worcester Poly. Institute
David Wormley, Penn State
Raymond Wright, U. of Rhode Island