BHEF Members Meet with White House Officials to Discuss Innovation in Industry-Higher Education Relationships

BHEF Launches National Undergraduate STEM Partnership and Presents Open Letter to the President

Washington, DC (June 14, 2012) — Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) members met with key Administration officials Tuesday at the White House, where they presented BHEF’s National Undergraduate STEM Partnership Strategy and Regional Workforce Projects. Developed in response to the recommendations made by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), these national and regional initiatives will contribute to achieving PCAST’s recommendations, which call for focusing greater attention on the first two years of college and adding one million additional STEM graduates over the next ten years. BHEF’s strategies also respond to the President’s Council on Jobs and Competiveness, which call for increasing the number of industry-driven undergraduate research internships and production of engineering degrees nationally.

Led by BHEF Chair, Wes Bush, Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman Corporation, and immediate past Chair, Brit Kirwan, Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, BHEF presented an open letter to the President to Dr. John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), announcing the formation of a National Undergraduate STEM Partnership of ten industry and higher education associations, professional societies, and government agencies. Calling it a “down payment for the one million STEM graduates needed by 2020,” BHEF CEO Brian Fitzgerald noted that the letter demonstrates a “greater alignment between industry and higher education around undergraduate education, particularly for the first two years of college, to increase the size and diversity of the STEM workforce. BHEF and its partners look forward to continued engagement between our group and federal agencies as we forge ahead in response to the PCAST recommendations.”

The National Undergraduate STEM Partnership Letter to the President outlines the following goals:

• Increase the number, rate, and diversity of undergraduates in STEM disciplines;
• Better align undergraduate education (including community college education) with STEM industry workforce needs in key strategic areas; and
• Identify roles and responsibilities for academic, industry, and government organizations in studying, advancing, and evaluating comprehensive and systemic reform in undergraduate STEM education and workforce development, recruitment, placement, and retention.

The National Undergraduate STEM Partnership Letter was signed by the CEOs of:

• Aerospace Industries Association
• American Chemical Society
• American Council on Education
• American Society for Engineering Education
• Association of American Universities
• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
• Business-Higher Education Forum
• National Defense Industrial Association
• Office of Naval Research
• TechNet

A key goal of the White House meeting was to forge broader and deeper partnerships with federal mission agencies in aligning undergraduate STEM education initiatives. This letter represents a significant first step in jointly achieving these goals.

Twitter hashtag #NextGenWorkforce