Engineering and computer science leaders from a coalition of Arkansas colleges and universities gathered at the U of A July 22-23 for the annual Meeting of Arkansas Engineering Deans, a two-day working session focused on a shared challenge: meeting the state's growing demand for engineering talent.
Chancellor Charles Robinson welcomed the group to the Fayetteville campus, where deans and associate deans from institutions across the state, from Jonesboro to Magnolia, compared initiatives and planned shared efforts to raise the national profile of engineering education in Arkansas.
That demand dominated a discussion of statewide needs on the meeting's opening afternoon, as each dean presented the initiatives their campus is undertaking to support Arkansas' STEM workforce. A common thread ran through the room: industry across the state needs more engineers than Arkansas currently produces.
The gap is measurable. Together, Arkansas institutions offering engineering and computer science degrees enrolled 10,135 students last fall and awarded 1,313 bachelor's degrees during the 2024-25 academic year.
A Heartland Forward report, "Engineers, Computer Scientists and Data Scientists as Drivers of Economic Growth," found the state faces a shortage of STEM graduates to meet employer demand and estimated that doubling engineering graduates and research at the U of A over the next 15 years could add $3.9 billion annually and 19,000 jobs to the Arkansas economy.
"The numbers are clear. Arkansas produces fewer engineers than its industries need, and that gap compounds every year we leave it unaddressed. This gathering among Arkansas' engineering deans matters because the answer must be statewide," said Kim Needy, dean of the College of Engineering, who hosted this year's meeting at Bell Engineering Center.
Sessions took on the questions engineering colleges nationwide are wrestling with. Deans examined strategies for improving student success and retention, expanding immersive experiences such as internships, co-ops, undergraduate research and study abroad and building AI literacy across engineering curricula.
"The Arkansas Engineering Deans Coalition demonstrates how higher education can work together to address challenges that are larger than any one institution," said Tansel Karabacak, dean of the Donaghey College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"By sharing ideas, aligning our efforts and building on each other's strengths, we are developing collaborative workforce initiatives that will help prepare the next generation of engineers to meet Arkansas' growing industry needs."
The group's collaboration extends beyond the annual gathering. The deans jointly maintain a statewide inventory of engineering and computer science education spanning multiple Arkansas institutions, updated each fall with new enrollment data, and will reconvene virtually this fall before a summer 2027 meeting hosted on another campus.
The group produced a shared document this past year, intended for legislatures, to offer an at-a-glance view of higher education in engineering among the members.
For the U of A, the statewide effort previews a milestone of its own. This fall, the College of Engineering will publicly launch Vision 2035, its strategic plan to substantially increase the number of engineering graduates at all levels and increase research productivity, in alignment with 150 Forward, the university's strategic plan developed by Chancellor Charles Robinson and his leadership team.
Coalition Members
- Arkansas State University
- Arkansas Tech University
- Harding University
- Henderson State University
- John Brown University
- Southern Arkansas University
- University of Arkansas
- University of Arkansas - Fort Smith
- University of Arkansas at Little Rock
- University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
- University of Central Arkansas
Contacts
Christopher Spencer, associate director of marketing and communications
College of Engineering
(479) 575-4535, cjspence@uark.edu