President Freeman Hrabowski has authored the preface to a new book: Advancing a Jobs-Driven Economy: Higher Education and Business Partnerships Lead the Way from the STEM Higher Ed Council and STEMconnector. 

In this preface, Dr. Hrabowski discusses the challenge of producing enough high quality STEM graduates to meet the growing commercial and economic need. He reflects on several of UMBC's most successful strategies, including our valuable partnerships with local businesses.  He writes:

"As we work to increase the number of students succeeding in STEM, we must also ensure that we are effectively connecting students with internships, jobs, and careers. Partnerships are central to this. On our campus, we are partnering with other colleges and universities, government agencies and laboratories, and companies. In this way, we can play a stronger role in an “ecosystem” encompassing education, training, internships,hiring, research, and technology commercialization.

Our partnerships with corporations are valuable and multi–faceted. The defense
industry leader, Northrop Grumman, for instance, is supporting our students in cyber–security. We have partnerships with start–ups and smaller companies, including over 100 biotechnology and IT companies on campus in our research park. These partnerships provide students with internship opportunities, contributing to their overall education and their development as professionals while also helping them establish the networks that will get them jobs. Students often ask, “How am I going to use what I’m learning?” Giving college students a chance to work in cyber–security or biotech labs provides an answer to that question."

The full text is attached. For more information about UMBC's business partnerships, please contact the CFR team.