Experience and Challenges of International Dual and Joint Degrees

The global environment of today’s industrial, service, and business sectors requires graduating students to be prepared to work in cross cultural settings. Cognizant of the demands of such environment, higher institutes of education are currently engaged in joint and dual degree programs as well as launching international satellite locations in other countries. In this work, we share our experience in the different models of these international cooperation and the challenges that face such programs with focus on engineering management, and industrial engineering in undergraduate education. The model deals with the development of an international undergraduate degree in Engineering Management. Its development is based on an award from the EU and the US Department of Education (The Atlantis Program). Through this award a memorandum of understanding was signed by the participating universities from Europe and the United States. Students taking part in this program will receive a travel stipend to spend one year in two (2) of the universities in the consortium and by the end of their fourth year they could receive three (3) Degrees in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from the institutions they attended. Also, they could receive a degree in Mechanical Engineering, if they choose to