The rather dour outlook for transport graduates in the US noted by Gus L. Keolanui and Donald F. Wood is all too true. For a decade or so the number of transportation courses offered in US universities has declined; the numbers of students majoring in transportation has been disappointing; and the attention given to transportation topics has diminished. Some cynic would say that the quality of transport education was not very good in the first place and that many transportation courses were better off dead than alive. (While that may be true, the probability is that the quality of transportation courses on the whole was not much worse -or much better -than the quality of other courses in the universities in question.)Faculty members in various parts of the United States bemoan the fact that there is no strong demand for their graduates. The student grapevine soon transmits this fact to potential transport majors, and class enrolments decline. When a school has fewer graduates to offer to potential employers, their recruiting activities diminish (if indeed they ever did recruit on campus); and this, in turn, encourages further decline. The US problem is circular.The situation in Canada contrasts sharply. Last year the University of British Columbia could have placed five times as many transport graduates with the MBA degree. Indeed, one government agency sends several different recruiters to the UBC campus in Vancouver, each seeking inside information on the availability of potential graduates -information which each hides from colleagues in other departments of the same agency. We have an implicit understanding with several large organisations that they will take a graduate or two each year -almost sight unseen. The strong demand for our graduates encourages the better students to major in transportation. This improves the quality of our product. The superior product encourages more companies to recruit our graduates. Thus our programmes expand.Why the contrast? Although Vancouver is a delightful place, and the University of British Columbia one of the better universities in North America, that surely cannot account for the difference. There must be other factors, and they should not be ignored.Perhaps foremost is the recognition on the part of the Canadian government that transportation is important to the Canadian economy. Something like
The rather dour outlook for transport graduates in the US noted by Gus L. Keolanui and Donald F. Wood is all too true. For a decade or so the number of transportation courses offered in US universities has declined; the numbers of students majoring in transportation has been disappointing; and the attention given to transportation topics has diminished. Some cynic would say that the quality of transport education was not very good in the first place and that many transportation courses were better off dead than alive. (While that may be true, the probability is that the quality of transportation courses on the whole was not much worse‐or much better‐than the quality of other courses in the universities in question.)
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