Transatlantic Dual Masters Degree Program in Transportation and Logistics Systems: the First Two Years of Implementation

Transcription

1 Cheu et al Word count: words + tables = words equivalent Transatlantic Dual Masters Degree Program in Transportation and Logistics Systems: the First Two Years of Implementation Ruey Long Cheu Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso 00 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, USA Tel: +---; rcheu@utep.edu Carlos Ferregut Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso 00 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, USA Tel: +---; ferregut@utep.edu Ladislav Bina Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University Konviktska 0, 000 Prague, Czech Republic Tel: +0---; bina@fd.cvut.cz Helena Novakova Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University Konviktska 0, 000 Prague, Czech Republic Tel: +0---; novakhe@fd.cvut.cz Tomas Horak Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University Konviktska 0, 000 Prague, Czech Republic Tel: +0---; xhorak@fd.cvut.cz Andrej Novak Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina Univerzitina /, 0 Zilina, Slovak Republic Tel: +---; andrej.novak@fpedas.uniza.sk Anton Hudak Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Zilina Univerzitina /, 0 Zilina, Slovak Republic Tel: +---0; anton.hudak@fpedas.uniza.sk Sandra Aguirre-Covarrubias College Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso 00 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, USA Tel: +---0; sandraac@utep.edu Paper -0 November, 0 Corresponding author. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

2 Cheu et al. Abstract In August 0, The University of Texas at El Paso (), Czech Technical University (CTU) and University of Zilina () jointly launched the Transatlantic Dual Masters Degree Program in Transportation and Logistics Systems. Under this program, a graduate student spends one year of study at and a second year at CTU or and vice versa. Upon the successful completion of the two-year program, the student earns two master degrees. This project required two years of effort that led to a successful proposal submitted to the funding agencies in the United States and the European Union, followed by one year of administrative preparation before the actual student mobility began in August 0. The first cohort of eight students has successfully completed the program in June 0. This article reports the sequence of events that led to the proposal submission and award, major issues surfaced and challenges overcome during the administrative preparation phase. This paper also documents the experiences of the students and professors who have participated in this program, and shares the key factors that have led to the successful implementation in the initial years. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

3 Cheu et al INTRODUCTION In the past two decades, several major events in the world, such as the opening of the economies in China and eastern European countries, formation of World Trade Organization (WTO), open skies and emergence of non-national airlines, proliferation of the internet, etc, have accelerated the globalization of the economy. To have a better chance to succeed in the global market, university graduates need to develop skills that will allow them to better interact, work and compete with graduates from all over the world. Skills like language training, international team building, cultural adaptation, understanding of global engineering issues and, in general, globability will become an asset for engineering graduates. Helping students acquire these skills represents a big challenge for universities worldwide, many of which are already implementing innovative global programs, such as those sponsored by The Erasmus program in the European Union (EU) () and the Atlantis program between EU and the United States (U.S.) (). Unfortunately, engineering programs, because of the demanding curriculum, seldom provide study abroad opportunities for students, even though engineers represent an increasingly significant percentage of professionals who are likely to work in multinational corporations. According to a 00 survey conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools, joint dual masters and doctoral degrees in engineering represented % of all the graduate programs that responded to the survey. The dual masters programs were the most common type of program (). The U.S. and EU are the two largest trading entities in the world. In 0, the freight shipment between U.S. and EU amounted to billion, and trade services between U.S. and EU was billion (). In 0, the total trade in goods between U.S. and Europe was $ billion (). Although universities in U.S. and EU countries have their distinct transportation degree programs catering to the road and freight systems in their respective regions, there are few programs that provide opportunities to study the transatlantic movement of people and goods. In August 0, The University of Texas at El Paso (), U.S., Czech Technical University (CTU), Czech Republic and University of Zilina, Slovak Republic, jointly launched the Transatlantic Dual Masters Degree Program in Transportation and Logistics Systems (ATL). The objectives of the ATL are: To provide a rigorous and yet flexible graduate level transportation and logistics curriculum that will meet the needs of EU and U.S. students; To prepare students from EU and U.S. for careers in international/transatlantic transportation and logistics; To provide opportunities for professors to jointly conduct research and supervise students; To expose students, faculty and staff with professional practices, innovative research and cultural understanding of EU and U.S.; and To establish a long-term and tangible cooperation between the partnering universities. The ATL synergistically combines courses of the existing master degree programs in the three universities to provide more breadth in training to students. The ATL has gone through an -month proposal preparation phase from November 00 to April 0; and post award implementation phase since August 0. The post award implementation may further be divided into a one-year administrative preparation phase and the subsequent student mobility phase. The program is co-funded for five years by the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program, under the U.S. Department of Education, and the European Commission s Directorate General for Education TRB 0 Annual Meeting

4 Cheu et al and Culture (DG EAC). The grant provides student stipends while study abroad, and travel for professors and administrators. Setting up and implementing a Dual Masters Program (DMP) is never easy. The task is made more challenging because of the involvement of three (instead of two) universities, each has its own administrative and academic structures, protocol, academic calendar and social culture. In addition, and had no prior experience with a DMP. The objective of this paper is, therefore, to document the challenges encountered and solutions learned in the process, and to share this unique experience with readers. The authors, who are the core team members of this project, hope that this positive experience will encourage colleagues at other universities to set up similar programs in the future to train engineers with globability skills. The remaining sections of this article provide brief backgrounds of the three universities followed by a recollection of major events that led to the proposal writing, submission and award. The ATL program structure is next presented. We then describe several key issues overcome by the project team during the administrative preparation and implementation. The experiences of the students and professors who participated in this program are then highlighted. Finally, the key factors that have led to the success of this project and major continuous challenges are summarized. BACKGROUNDS OF THE UNIVERSITIES This ATL involves three universities:, CTU and. The involvement of two EU universities and at least one U.S. university is the agencies funding requirement. is part of The University of Texas System. It is located in the City of El Paso, Texas. El Paso is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S.-Mexican border. The transportation graduate and PhD programs at are offered by the Department of Civil Engineering, in the College of Engineering. The focuses of the transportation programs are transportation planning, traffic engineering, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), freight logistics, transportation safety and infrastructure management. CTU is located in Prague, Czech Republic. CTU is the top engineering university in the Czech Republic. It has eight faculties (colleges) with a total student enrollment of,000. The transportation bachelor, master and PhD programs are offered by the Faculty of Transportation Sciences. The Faculty has departments offering courses in traffic engineering, ITS, logistics, economics and air transportation. is located in Zilina, the third largest city and also the vehicle assembly hub in the Slovak Republic. has eight faculties with a student enrollment of,000. The transportation programs at are offered by the Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications. Among the focuses of the bachelor, master and PhD transportation programs offered by are transportation logistics, transportation planning, safety and vehicle technology. The Transport program and the Logistics and Forwarding program at are ranked number one and two in the nation, respectively. The colleges in CTU and are named faculties. To avoid confusion, the term faculties in this paper refers to academic colleges in CTU and, while the term professors is used to describe academic staff and teachers, usually known as faculty members in U.S. schools. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

5 Cheu et al PROPOSAL PREPARATION Prior to this ATL project, and CTU had a relatively short history of collaboration. Both and CTU first signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in May 00 to exchange undergraduate students from all colleges. Since 00, the College of Engineering at has hosted at least CTU students. During the same period, more than engineering students have completed their exchange studies at CTU. In November 00, the Dean of the Faculty of Transportation Sciences of CTU led a delegation of professors to visit the College of Engineering at. A one-day bi-national transportation engineering colloquium was held in which professors from both universities presented and discussed research interests and ideas. A unanimous decision was made to apply for the mobility grants from the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program. The intention at the time was to carry out non-degree-granting exchange of graduate students for four years that would lead to the establishment of a DMP. As the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program required the involvement of two universities in EU,, which already had a close tie with CTU, was introduced to form the three-university consortium. The first proposal, which was submitted to the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program in next available funding cycle, was not successful. However, the project team received many constructive feedbacks from the funding agencies. To continue with the effort, the Deans of Faculty of Transportation Sciences at CTU and the Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications at, and several key EU team members visited again in February 0. They participated in the International Workshop on Building Partnership and Pathways to Address Engineering Grand Challenges, organized by and funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. During this visit, the partners decided to submit a stronger proposal for the direct implementation of a DMP. A MOU for the DMP was drafted and a preliminary program structure agreed upon by all the partners. Many feedbacks received from the funding agencies were incorporated into the revised proposal. The DMP proposal was submitted to the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program in April 0. The notice of award was received by the three universities in June 0 and the project commenced on August 0. The project team spent the first project year setting up administrative policies and procedures, while recruiting students to study in the respective home institutions. The actual exchanges of students began on August 0. PROGRAM STRUCTURE The ATL awards each participating student two master degrees at the successful completion of the two-year study: - Master of Science in Civil Engineering (M.S.C.E.) from ; and - Master of Engineering in Technology in Transportation and Telecommunication (Ing.) from CTU; or a Master of Science in Logistic and Forwarding (Ing.) from. Table illustrates the four options available to students, including credits accumulated in each university and eventual degrees awarded. The four options are:. A U.S. student spends the first academic year attending courses and conducting research at. He/she earns 0% of the credits at. In the second academic year, he/she earns another % of the credits by attending courses and conducting research at CTU, and another TRB 0 Annual Meeting

6 Cheu et al % of the credits by attending courses at. The credits earned at CTU and are transferred to. The same student transfers the credits earned at and to CTU. He/she receives a master degree from and a master degree from CTU.. A U.S. student spends the first academic year attending courses and conducting research at. He/she earns 0% of the credits at. In the second academic year, he/she earns another % of the credits by attending courses and conducting research at, and another % of the credits by attending courses at CTU. The credits earned at and CTU are transferred to. The same student transfers the credits earned at and CTU to. He/she receives a master degree from and a master degree from.. An EU student spends the first academic year attending courses and conducting research primarily at CTU. He/she earns % of the credits at CTU and % of the credits at. In the second academic year, he/she attends courses and conducts research at to earn another 0% of the credits. The credits earned at and are transferred to CTU. The same student transfers the credits earned at CTU and to. He/she receives a master degree from CTU and a master degree from.. An EU student spends the first academic year attending courses and conducting research primarily at. He/she earns % of the credits at and % of the credits at CTU. In the second academic year, he/she attends courses and conducts research at to earn another 0% of the credits. The credits earned at and CTU are transferred to. The same student transfers the credits earned at and CTU to. He/she receives a master degree from and a master degree from. All courses in the ATL are conducted in English. In addition to the earned and transferred credits, each student must pass a thesis defense examination. The thesis must be written in English and the oral defense examination is also conducted in English. To earn a master degree from CTU or, a student must also pass a state examination. Details of the thesis and state examinations will be discussed later. More information on the program structure and courses offered can be found in the respective university websites (-) Any new degree program offered by an accredited university or joint degree program offered by accredited universities usually takes several years to receive approvals from the appropriate authorities. For timely implementation of the ATL, the project team opted to use the existing master degrees and courses to the most possible extent. To offer the ATL, uses the existing M.S.C.E. degree and courses, but simply allows more credits to be transferred from EU to. CTU and also use their corresponding master degrees. However, a new study field (commonly known as area of concentration or track in U.S.) within the master degree was created by CTU. CTU and also modified the degree requirements so that more credits could be transferred from the two other partnering universities. Several new courses were also added to meet the EU funding agency s requirement. All these changes required the approvals of the authorities within the universities as well as the respective ministry in Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. These efforts took time but were succeeded within the one-year administrative preparation phase of the project. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

7 Cheu et al. 0 TABLE Program Structure Option Option Option Option Home institution CTU Host institution CTU Year : Fall & Spring Semesters Year : Fall & Spring Semesters Venue & month of thesis defense examination Venue & month of state examination Degree (0% credit) CTU (% credit) (% credit) CTU (May) CTU (May) M.S.C.E. from (0% credit) (% credit) CTU (% credit) (June) (June) M.S.C.E. from Degree Ing. from CTU Ing. From ADMINISTRATIVE AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES Memorandum of Understanding CTU (% credit) (% credit) (0% credit) (April) (April) Ing. from CTU M.S.C.E. from (% credit) CTU (% credit) (0% credit) (April) (June) Ing. From M.S.C.E. from The MOU is the most important piece of document in this project. It documents the universities commitment, and lays the framework for the various offices to implement the ATL. Important items covered by this MOU are student recruitment and selection, partner roles and responsibilities, academic program and student status, and academic and disciplinary rules. The MOU was drafted in parallel with the proposal writing. A draft version of the MOU was submitted with the ATL proposal to the EU-U.S. Atlantis Program. The MOU was signed by the President of, and Rectors of CTU and in November 0. During the preparation of the MOU (and the proposal), the project team had the opportunity to work with all the stakeholders within the universities. They included the academic departments, college/faculties, graduate schools, president/rector/provost offices, legal offices, academic senates/councils/boards, curriculum committees, office of admissions, study abroad offices, office of international programs, registrars, financial services, campus housing offices, and etc. The staff are all very helpful in providing pre-emptive advice and assisting to prevent/resolve issues. The early engagement with the university communities early in the process helped to gather supports. Credit Transfer A major attraction of this DMP is that a student is able to earn two complementary master degrees in two academic years. This time-to-degrees is significantly shorter than what it would take the student to study full-time in the two different programs independently. To reduce the TRB 0 Annual Meeting

8 Cheu et al time-to-degrees, credits earned in any of the three partnering universities are mutually recognized and transferred. uses the Semester Credit Hour (SCH) system while CTU and use the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) (). At, one SCH is equivalent to one hour of lecture instruction per week, over a -week semester. A typical graduate course at is worth three SCHs. The M.S.C.E. degree requires 0 SCHs, in which six SCHs are thesis research. Although the SCH only counts the instructional hours, students are expected to devote approximately three additional hours per week for self-study, homework and assignments for every hour of classroom instruction. A typical full-time graduate student at registers for nine SCHs per semester, which requires him/her to devote approximately hours of effort per week. All the courses in the ATL are graded with A, B, C, D and F letter grades. Each letter grade corresponds to a grade point, from four grade points for A to zero grade point for F. At CTU and, one ECTS credit is equivalent to to 0 hours of work per semester. The ECTS counts the classroom contact hours plus the time for out-of-classroom activities such as self-study, preparation, assignments and etc (). Courses at CTU and range from one to six ECTS credits. A student at CTU and needs 0 ECTS credits to earn a master degree which typically takes two academic years, or 0 ECTS per semester. Although majority of the courses at CTU carry letter grades (A, B, C, D, E and F), a few courses are graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory. All the courses at carry letter grades (A, B, C, D, E and F). Grade points at CTU and range from to, according to ECTS guideline, with one for A to five for F. Taking the expected workload into consideration, the project team agreed that one SCH earned at is equivalent to four ECTS credits at CTU and, and vice versa. After the ATL project was awarded, the project team worked out a detailed credit transfer policy and instruments between the three institutions. The policy allows the mutual transfer of credits of only completed courses with A and B grades. The names of the transferred courses and equivalent credits appear in the student s academic transcript (known as diploma supplement in EU); however, the grades are not transferred nor used in Grade Point Average (GPA) calculation. Accreditation A major issue that the project team dealt with in the initial months of implementation was the accreditation of each of the three degrees. is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) (). CTU is accredited by the Czech Accreditation Commission, under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Czech Republic. is accredited by the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of Slovak Republic. The ATL project team has opted to offer dual degrees instead of a new joint degree to avoid the lengthy process of accreditation. Although the three degrees awarded under the ATL are existing degrees, because of the relatively high percentage of credit transfer, each university still had to submit documents to its respective accreditation agency. As the ATL is a DMP, followed SACS Commission on Colleges procedure on Substantive Change for Dual Educational Programs (). Before the commencement of student exchange in August 0, submitted a notification letter with a copy of the signed MOU to SACS informing the latter on the implementation of the DMP. A notification of acceptance was subsequently received form SACS, with no further action required. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

9 Cheu et al As mentioned earlier, CTU has created a new study area under the existing master degree, introduced a few new courses and allowed for more credits to be transferred. The Czech Accreditation Commission required CTU to submit full set of documents for the ATL program. The submitted documents included the MOU, course syllabi and resumes of all the instructors. Because the accreditation process could take several months to receive approval, the project team at CTU applied for accreditation as soon as the MOU was signed, while the operating procedures were being worked out. The approval was received by CTU in June 0, in time for student to apply for admission into CTU for the Fall 0 semester. The accreditation process of is similar to that of CTU. Student Selection, Admission and Orientation Students who participate in the ATL must meet the admission requirements of the home and host institutions. A student is normally admitted into the master program at the home institution in the first year. The project director at the home institution monitors his/her performance in the first semester, and upon satisfactory progress, recommend his/her application to the host institution in the second semester. CTU and also require their students to pass an English test and an interview conducted in English in the first year of study. The EU students are also required by to take TOEFL and GRE as part of the application process. Because all the courses in the ATL are conducted in English, there is no language requirement for students who are applying to CTU or. For the first cohort, the project team recruited one student to study at CTU, four and three students from CTU and, respectively, to study at. Once admitted into the host institution, the project director at the host institution works with the relevant units in the institution to assist the inbound students to obtain student visas. The home institution also arranges pre-departure orientation to outbound students. Upon arrival at the host institution, the students attend a series of orientation events for one week before the commencement of the Fall semester. It is expected that from the second year onward, ATL alumni will also be involved in pre-departure orientation. In fact, the second cohort of students who were first year in the program at the home institution had met second year students who were on exchange. Some of them even took the same course. Professors who visited the partnering universities have also taken the opportunity to meet with prospective students, to help to promote the ATL and to accustom newly admitted students to the life at the host universities. Fees and Expenses A major issue in the negotiation of the terms in the MOU and subsequently during administrative preparation was student fees. A typical student exchange program works on the basis that two students pay tuition fees to their respective home institutions but they exchange places to study at each other s university. Each qualified student in the ATL receives a stipend while studying abroad, to help to cover the additional living expenses. Each U.S. student (U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident) receives a stipend of $,000 that covers two semesters and round trip airfare. Each EU student (citizen of an EU country) receives a stipend of approximately,000 (equivalent to $,00 in July 0), including round trip airfare. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

10 Cheu et al At, as in other U.S. universities, all the fees are cost-based and itemized. Other than tuition (which has been waived for inbound exchange students), students are billed for the laboratory facilities, library, computer accounts, recreation facilities, student associations, medical insurance, dormitory, and etc. However, in Czech Republic and Slovak Republic, higher education is heavily subsidized by the governments. Students, including international students, do not have to pay fee for services provided by the public universities, except the nominal fees for dormitory and food. The costs of living in Prague and Zilina are relatively low compared to El Paso. It took the team members some time to understand each other s fee structure and then explained to the students and university administrators. Prior to student arrivals, decided to waive all the fees which are charged by the various functioning units within the universities, effectively having a reciprocal arrangement with CTU and. However, EU students are still required to pay fees for the services (such as TOEFL, GRE, caps and gowns, thesis publication) which has outsourced to external providers. EU students are required to pay U.S. visa application fee which is significantly higher than the fee for U.S. students to obtain a visa to study in Czech Republic or Slovak Republic. Thesis and State Examinations In the ATL, each student must submit a master thesis, in English, to the home institution as well as the host institution, and orally defend his/her thesis in English. As each student s master thesis is co-supervised by one professor at and one professor at CTU or, it is natural and more cost-effective to conduct the thesis examination jointly via video conference. Due to the time difference, the thesis examinations were conducted in the early morning in El Paso (U.S. central time) which is evening in Prague and Zilina. The logistical arrangement for the thesis examination is somewhat complicated and is explained below. requires each master thesis to be defended in front of a committee of at least three professors, one of them must be a professor outside the academic department (known as outside member ). Arrangement is made for the student s CTU or supervisor to be appointed as a Temporary Graduate Faculty at so that he/she can serve as the outside member. The thesis committee chair must be on-site to conduct the thesis examination. CTU thesis examination needs a committee of at least five experts in the field, majority of the members must be CTU professors. At least one CTU professor must be on-site, while other members may participate in the examination via video conference. thesis supervisors are appointed as Members of Examination Board of the Faculty of Transportation Sciences at CTU so that they are eligible to serve as CTU thesis examination committee members. In addition to the examination committee, each CTU thesis must also be examined by an opponent similar to a journal manuscript review. The opponent must be an expert in the same field but outside the degree granting department. The CTU supervisor must also write a thesis review as well. s thesis is examined by a committee of at least three professors. The arrangement is similar to the thesis committee. supervisors are appointed as Members of Examination Committee of the Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications at. In addition to thesis defense examinations, CTU and also require their students to pass a state examination. For the state examination, each student selects three courses (two EU courses and one course) to be examined orally. The examination committee randomly TRB 0 Annual Meeting

11 Cheu et al selects and asks one question per course from a prepared list of questions. The committee then awards a letter grade (A, B, C, D, E or F) to each question asked. CTU has agreed to conduct its state examinations for students who are physically present at immediately after the thesis examinations. However, for students who are seeking a degree from, they must take the state examination on campus (see Table ). For the first cohort of ATL students, one CTU and two professors traveled to in April 0 to conduct/participate in the examinations of the EU students. A professor traveled to CTU in May 0 to chair the U.S. student s thesis examination and to participate in this student s CTU state examination. Two professors traveled to in June 0 to participate in state examinations. Program Evaluation Plan Program evaluation plan is an important factor in the proposal review process by the U.S. funding agency, but optional for the EU agency. An annual evaluation report of ATL must be submitted to U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this evaluation is to assess the accomplishment of ATL s objectives. As education program evaluation is relatively new to the EU team members, prepared the evaluation plan and explained to the partners the concept, intention and the activities involved in the evaluation process. The project team has engaged an external evaluator to conduct the annual evaluation. The evaluation plan is outcome oriented. The ATL proposal has specified expected program outcomes that meet the objectives of the ATL. To design courses in the ATL that enable students to achieve the desired outcomes and to assist students in selecting courses, a table has been created to map the desired learning objectives of each course with some of the program outcomes. Due to space limitation, the outcomes and table are not listed here. Readers may refer to the program website () for details. The evaluation is conducted following Stuffelbeam s Management Oriented Evaluation Approach (), but customized to emphasize the learning process and product. The process evaluation results on information about the administration of the ATL activities while the product evaluation generates information about the expected educational outcomes. An evaluation matrix is also created to specify the program objectives, and under each objective identify the tangible outputs, data needs and analysis plan. Qualitative data is gathered via interviews and surveys conducted by the evaluator. Surveys on students and professors are conducted when students have just begun their study abroad, as well as at the completion of the program. The results of the student and professor surveys are reported in the following section of this paper. At the time of writing, the outcome evaluation is in progress. The authors have planned to elaborate on the evaluation and outcome assessment in a subsequent paper. EXPERIENCE WITH FIRST COHORT OF STUDENTS Experience of Students Because of the pre-departure orientations, students already had some good ideas about the host campuses upon arrival. They immediately immersed themselves in academic and social activities at the host institutions. The seven EU students who attended were very active in TRB 0 Annual Meeting

12 Cheu et al. 0 the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter. They attended conferences and worked with alumni and local organizations on community projects. In addition, they gave informational talks to undergraduate students at to promote ATL. Table lists the major activities undertaken by the EU students at. TABLE Major Activities of EU students in U.S. Date Event Remark August 0 Institute of Transportation Engineers Texas Participation by ATL students District Meeting at Garland, TX () October 0 El Paso Texas First Annual Canstruction Competition (canned food drive) Participation by ATL students who formed a team with alumni at Walter P Moore, a local consulting company October 0 Internal Food Fair ATL students cooked and sold Czech and Slovak food for the st time on campus January 0 February 0 February 0 March 0 April 0 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Washington D.C. MathCounts (high school mathematics competition), organized by Texas Society of Professional Engineers Teens in Driver Seat (road safety promotion campaign to high school students), with Texas Transportation Institute El Paso Office Institute of Transportation Engineers Texas District Meeting at San Marcos, TX 0 American Society of Engineering Education Gulf Southwest Annual Conference, El Paso, TX Participation by ATL student Participation by ATL students Participation by ATL students Participation by ATL student, who also won a student paper award. Paper presentations by ATL students In addition to the activities listed in Table, the seven EU students in the ATL visited Texas Department of Transportation, El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization and City of El Paso Transportation Department. The U.S. student who attended CTU visited the Road Directorate of the Czech Republic, Prague Airport, DHL and Globus Hypermarket. The U.S. student also attended the New Trends in Paving Conference hosted by CTU and DuPont. These visits and activities had the objective to familiarize students with the professional practices of transportation engineers in EU and U.S. A survey was given to the eight students who completed the program, as promised in the evaluation plan. The major findings of the student surveys were: All the students said that this program enabled them to gain valuable knowledge in transportation, and skills to conduct research; Seven students said that they were able to take courses not offered by their home institution; All the students said that the research projects met their expectation; Seven students were able to see the practical applications of the knowledge acquired; TRB 0 Annual Meeting

13 Cheu et al Seven students were satisfied with the rigor of learning, level of research, exposure to practical activities and the working relationship with their thesis supervisors; Three students said that participating in this program has reinforced their commitments in further education and created interest in academic career; All the students indicated that through this program they gained an understanding of professional practices and standards in the host countries, and that they acquired an international career outlook; Seven students acknowledged that ATL gave them opportunities to build lasting professional relationships; All of the students indicated that the program increased their desires to travel abroad, became more interested in world affairs, gained a different perspective of their own heritage, and became more mature and gained self-confidence. Three out of the eight students are currently enrolled in PhD programs (one at and two at ). Experience of Professors For the professors, the incentives to participate in the ATL are the opportunities to conduct research and supervise students jointly with colleagues in the partnering universities, and to visit partnering universities to participate in thesis and state examinations. The thesis topics are identified by the supervisors and students in their home institutions. The project director at the host institution then identified a co-supervisor who is an expert in the same field. The two supervisors then communicate to refine the objective and scope of the thesis, taking into consideration the student s interest, time, budget, availability of the data and other resources. The supervisors may not necessary be members of ATL project team, or from the degree granting department. For example, professors in electrical engineering and industrial engineering at have participated in thesis supervision. The first cohort of eight students completed theses in the following areas: Pavement management systems Vehicle-miles-traveled tax Checked baggage inspection systems at airports Traffic signal control systems Transatlantic supply chain disruption Facility location for intermodal shipments Workload of truck drivers and its impact on truck safety Risk analysis with an application for freight insurance Some of the theses involved comparisons of the transportation systems (for examples, pavement management systems, traffic signal control systems, workload of truck drivers) between U.S. and selected EU countries; while several others developed transportation network models that spanned across multiple countries or between the continents. Part of the program evaluation plan includes survey of professors who supervised student theses. Six professors were involved in the supervision of the first cohort of eight students. Five out of the six professors participated in the survey. The following trends were identified from the responses: Five professors agreed that ATL aligns with their own interests in academia; TRB 0 Annual Meeting

14 Cheu et al Four professors were satisfied with the engagement demonstrated by the students, the amount of practice and knowledge acquired by the students; Four professors mentioned that their experience and expertise matched the students research interests; Four professors felt satisfied with the rigor of theses prepared by the students; Four professors were preparing publications with their students as co-authors; Four professors were satisfied with the relationship developed with advisees; All the professors rated the overall quality of support from the university, the College of Engineering and the Department of Civil Engineering as Excellent or Very Good ; Five professors indicated that their expectations about the program were met. DISCUSSIONS Critical Factors for Success There are many factors that have led to the successful proposal and implementation of the ATL in the past two years. This section discusses several critical factors. Institutional support. The commitment of the university administrators plays a pivotal role in securing the project funding, and they continue to provide advice and support during the program implementation. The three universities take pride in breaking new ground and engaging in a non-traditional approach to educate transportation engineers. Activities in the ATL are often given prominent coverage in universities magazines, web sites and press releases. Encouraged by the initial success, the College of Engineering at has created a full-time position of Director of Global Programs to expand the opportunity for international collaborations. The leaderships in the universities view this project as a unique opportunity for its project team members to integrate teaching, research and service. Program ownership. The idea of the ATL project came from the team members themselves. They take pride in the planning and implementation of all aspects of our program. The concept of ownership extends to attitude towards students as well. The team members have always regarded ATL students as our students irrespective of the home institutions. This is because every student is concurrently registered as a full-time degree seeking student in two universities. In fact, any reference to U.S., EU,, CTU and when referring to students in this paper is for clarity in describing the program arrangement. Mutual respect. The team members, through meetings during the proposal writing phase, have developed chemistry and mutual respect with each other. Members from the three universities see each other as equal partners. Most of the issues are resolved quickly through discussions over video conferences. Staff support. The ATL team members are fortunate enough to engage staff in the various offices as early as the proposal writing phase, and convinced them to buy-in to the DMP concept. Student involvement. students in the transportation program were very excited to meet the ATL students from the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic. The ATL students TRB 0 Annual Meeting

15 Cheu et al were assigned laboratory space so that they could be integrated with other students in the transportation program. All of them participated in many student club and social activities together. Weekly research group meetings were also organized so that they could exchange research ideas and polish presentation skills. Housing the ATL students at the campus dormitory enabled them to meet many other local and exchange students as well. Challenges Although the project team has overcome many obstacles, there are still several other challenges. To the project directors, the most challenging task is student recruitment. The project team has found that it is relatively more difficult to recruit U.S. students to study in EU. This imbalance in student number appears to be a common issue in most of the dual degree programs between EU and U.S. (). This is despite the effort put in by the project team members and students to promote the ATL to undergraduate and graduate students on campus. The difficulty is compounded by the limited number of engineering graduate students who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents (who are eligible to receive ATL student stipends). On the other hand, two negative factors frequently cited by EU students are the high cost of living in U.S. and language (English) barrier. To the students and thesis supervisors, the most challenging aspect of the program is thesis research. It is not easy for the student and his/her EU and U.S. supervisors to identify research topics of common interest. As evident in the results of the student and professor surveys, one student s research interest did not align closely with the supervisor s expertise. The topic of research was initially decided by the student in consultation with the supervisor at the home institution, once the student had been selected to participate in the ATL. For this particular student, there was no professor at with immediate expertise in the same field. The professor with closest research interest volunteered to supervise this student. The project team learned that, for the subsequent cohorts, student s research interest and availability of supervisor at the host institution with immediate expertise must be a factor in the student selection process. Another major difficulty students faced in thesis research is data collection in EU. The transportation industry and information systems in U.S. are relatively more transparent. The close ties has with the Texas Department of Transportation, El Paso Metropolitan Planning Organization, City of El Paso and many government agencies helped in facilitating the data gathering in U.S. However, it is relatively more difficult and time consuming to obtain data from the authorities in EU countries. This issue will remain a continuous challenge for future students and supervisors. The availability of data must also be a factor in deciding the scope of the thesis. SUMMARY With strategic education objectives, a good program structure, a clear evaluation plan and support from the university leaderships and staff, the project team has demonstrated that implementing a successfully DMP that involves three universities is possible. The program not TRB 0 Annual Meeting

16 Cheu et al only provides a transatlantic education opportunity for the students, but also benefited professors by expanding their education, research and service, and integrates the three components. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The contents of this article were developed under an EU-U.S. Atlantis Grant (PJ00) from the International and Foreign Language Education Programs (IFLE), U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. This research is co-funded by the European Commission s Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) under Agreement 0-/00 00 CPT EU-US TD. The authors are grateful to Alena Sedlackova at and many colleagues who have assisted in the proposal preparation and implementation of this program. The authors would also like to acknowledge the following colleagues who have participated in thesis supervision and/or examinations: Salvador Hernandez, Carlos Chang, Thompson Sarkodie-Gyan and Jose Espiritu at ; Miroslav Svitek, Vaclav Skurovec and Pavel Pribyl at CTU; and Marian Gogola and Milos Poliak at. REFERENCES. EC. Erasmus Programme. Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency, European Commission, 0. Available at Accessed May, 0.. U.S. Department of Education. European Union-United States Atlantis Program. Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education. Available at CGS. Joint degrees, Dual Degrees, and International Research Collaborations, A Report on the CGS Graduate International Collaborations Project, Council of Graduate Schools, Washington, D.C., 0.. EC. Bilateral Relationships, United States, Trade. European Union. 0. Available at Accessed May, 0.. U.S. Census Bureau. Trade in Goods with Europe. Available at Accessed May, 0... Dual Masters Program. The University of Texas at El Paso, 0. CTU. Transportation and Logistic System: Transatlantic Dual-Master s Program. Czech Technical University, 0. TRB 0 Annual Meeting

17 Cheu et al. 0.. Katedra Cestnej a Mestskej Dopravy Program Atlantis. University of Zilina. EC. ECTS User s Guide. Education and Culture DG. European Communities, 00.. EAC. Focus on Higher Education in Europe 0, The Impact of the Bologna Process. Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Commission, 0.. SACS. The Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement. Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 0.. SACS. Collaborative Academic Arrangements: Policy and Procedures. Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 0.. Stufflebeam, D. L. Evaluation Models. New Directions for Evaluation, Vol., 0, pp. -.. ITE. ITE Student Members Engage in Trans-Atlantic Master s Program. ITE Journal, December, 0, pp... Obst, D., and Kuder, M. Joint and Double Degree Programs in the Transatlantic Context: A Survey Report. In Joint and Double Degree Programs, Ed. Obst, D. and Kuder, M., Institute of International Education, New York, 00, pp. -. TRB 0 Annual Meeting