93-09-18 Teamwork Lowers Cost of Higher Education TEAMWORK LOWERS COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 18 -- A new Virginia Peninsula- based doctoral program has linked teamwork and telecommunication to lower the costs of higher education. Old Dominion University, the College of William & Mary, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia have combined to offer engineering and science courses over a telecommunications network. The program, known as the Virginia Consortium of Engineering and Science Universities, offers a practical, thrifty way to train scientists and engineers to conduct research vital to the nation. Students attend on-site and televised classes at ODU's Peninsula Center in Hampton, which can receive and transmit courses via satellite. Doctoral students serve a residency at the center, rather than at their home institutions, reducing costs. The four schools provide professors to teach the on-site courses, which are also beamed to classrooms on their campuses. Doctoral degrees are offered in thermal science, mechanics, materials science, electrical engineering, engineering management and nondestructive testing. "The offerings will be adjusted as needed," says U.Va. engineering professor George Cahen, chairman of the consortium's graduate affairs and curriculum committee. The consortium builds on existing arrangements between the four state universities and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton. Officials say Langley's facilities and its wide-ranging research interests make it a logical choice to help develop courses relevant to real-world concerns. Also, by not having to duplicate Langley's lab facilities at the universities, it is estimated the consortium will save hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition, says Cahen, "we hope to develop programs of interest to other peninsula research entities, such as the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility [a federal lab in Newport News]." Students from any one of the participating schools may take up to half of their course work from the other consortium members. However, a student must meet the degree requirements at the school of his or her major professor. A resident director, working closely with faculty from the four schools, will help each student plan a program of study. The venture is an addition to the Virginia Cooperative Graduate Engineering Program, a decade-old series of televised courses that allows students to obtain master's degrees in engineering. The courses, offered by George Mason University, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech, are beamed to sites around the Commonwealth and parts of the United States. ### September 17, 1993 FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact George Cahen, University of Virginia, (804) 924-3734; Griffith McRee, Old Dominion University, (804) 683-4897; Walter O'Brien, Virginia Tech, (703) 231-6661; or Robert Scholnick, William & Mary, (804) 221-2468. TEAMWORK LOWERS COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Sept. 18 -- A new Virginia Peninsula- based doctoral program has linked teamwork and telecommunication to lower the costs of higher education. Old Dominion University, the College of William & Mary, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia have combined to offer engineering and science courses over a telecommunications network. The program, known as the Virginia Consortium of Engineering and Science Universities, offers a practical, thrifty way to train scientists and engineers to conduct research vital to the nation. Students attend on-site and televised classes at ODU's Peninsula Center in Hampton, which can receive and transmit courses via satellite. Doctoral students serve a residency at the center, rather than at their home institutions, reducing costs. The four schools provide professors to teach the on-site courses, which are also beamed to classrooms on their campuses. Doctoral degrees are offered in thermal science, mechanics, materials science, electrical engineering, engineering management and nondestructive testing. "The offerings will be adjusted as needed," says U.Va. engineering professor George Cahen, chairman of the consortium's graduate affairs and curriculum committee. The consortium builds on existing arrangements between the four state universities and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton. Officials say Langley's facilities and its wide-ranging research interests make it a logical choice to help develop courses relevant to real-world concerns. Also, by not having to duplicate Langley's lab facilities at the universities, it is estimated the consortium will save hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition, says Cahen, "we hope to develop programs of interest to other peninsula research entities, such as the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility [a federal lab in Newport News]." Students from any one of the participating schools may take up to half of their course work from the other consortium members. However, a student must meet the degree requirements at the school of his or her major professor. A resident director, working closely with faculty from the four schools, will help each student plan a program of study. The venture is an addition to the Virginia Cooperative Graduate Engineering Program, a decade-old series of televised courses that allows students to obtain master's degrees in engineering. The courses, offered by George Mason University, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech, are beamed to sites around the Commonwealth and parts of the United States. ### September 17, 1993 FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact George Cahen, University of Virginia, (804) 924-3734; Griffith McRee, Old Dominion University, (804) 683-4897; Walter O'Brien, Virginia Tech, (703) 231-6661; or Robert Scholnick, William & Mary, (804) 221-2468. Karen Castle, Office Services Specialist, University News Office P.O. Box 9018, Booker House, Charlottesville, VA 22906 (804) 924-7116, kac@virginia.edu [Submitted by: Karen A. Castle (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu) Fri, 17 Sep 93 15:19:42 EDT]