URI engineering college to offer 5-year degree

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The University of Rhode Island’s College of Engineering will offer a five-year, professional-practice degree program in ocean engineering beginning in fall 2009.
The school said the addition is in response to recommendations in a report issued by the National Academy of Engineering.
The National Academy report, Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century, recommends that a bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline be considered a pre-engineering or engineer-in-training degree, and master’s degree programs should be accredited separately as professional degrees.
According to Malcolm Spaulding, URI professor of ocean engineering, few engineering programs at universities in the United States have transitioned from four-year degree programs to five-year, professional-degree programs yet. As a first step, he proposed establishing a small pilot program in the URI Department of Ocean Engineering, which was approved by the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education earlier this year. &#8226