N.C. House Proposes New Applied Science School at UNC

Posted on June 25, 2024

A budget-adjustment bill advanced by the N.C. House last week would create a School of Applied Science and Technology at Carolina and provide $8 million in startup funding.

The bill would ask UNC’s chancellor and the UNC System Board of Governors to establish the school, which would offer degrees in engineering technologies/technicians, biomedical sciences, mathematics and statistics, and computer and information sciences, among others.

The applied science school would not be a traditional engineering school, which typically offers mechanical, electrical, civil or structural engineering courses, and it would not be in competition with N.C. State University, N.C. A&T University or the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, all of which have engineering schools, according to University officials.

The N.C. Senate passed Monday night its budget-adjustment bill, which did not include language or funding for the new school. The two chambers will have to reconcile the differences between the measures, which likely wouldn’t take place until later this summer at the earliest.

House lawmakers believe the school is needed to meet a growing demand for engineering degrees. Carolina must “expand academic programming in areas critical to supporting research, industry partnerships, and the workforce needs of the State,” according to language in the House bill. Officials say the new school is necessary and would build upon existing programs in applied sciences at UNC while helping to fill a statewide shortage of graduates with applied science degrees.

North Carolina lags the nation in graduating students with engineering skills, and engineering enrollment at Duke, Wake Forest and Elon universities is outpacing enrollment at UNC System schools, according to University officials. UNC officials believe more than 7,000 North Carolina students are leaving North Carolina to earn degrees in engineering and applied sciences at other universities, and the new school is an effort to attract those students to Carolina, which will bolster the state economy.

“As alumni, we have a unique opportunity to support the new School of Applied Science and Technology at UNC, which will benefit all of North Carolina, not just UNC,” said Carolina Alumni President Veronica Flaspoehler ’08. “This school will help transform the state into a leader in biotechnology and innovation, driving economic growth statewide.”

Carolina hasn’t operated an engineering school since 1938, when the programs at UNC and NCSU were consolidated due to financial constraints. At the time, both schools had heated debates over which school would keep its respective engineering program. UNC transferred its engineering staff and equipment to NCSU, then N.C. State College, but Carolina kept its sanitary engineering program, which ultimately became part of UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. (See “Reverse Engineering,” November/December 2023 Review.)

The applied sciences school would draw on the programs Carolina operates on campus such as environmental science, computer science and biomechanical engineering, the latter of which is a program managed jointly with NCSU, according to officials.

UNC operates an Applied Physical Sciences department, which “combines applied science and engineering to solve real problems for North Carolina and the world through technology, innovation, and partnerships, and the preparation of knowledgeable and responsible students, citizens, and researchers,” according to its website. The department expands interdisciplinary research and teaching “by strengthening an intellectual climate in which science is collaborative and focused on applications.”

The department will begin offering this fall an undergraduate major in applied sciences that’s intended to connect engineering to liberal arts. The major will offer tracks in materials engineering and environmental engineering, which will “combine foundations in chemistry, biology and physics with engineering principles, modeling and computational analysis so that students develop a strong background in traditional engineering fields,” according to the College of Arts and Sciences. The department offers a PhD in applied physical sciences and a minor in applied sciences and engineering.

For the School of Applied Science and Technology, UNC officials say they plan to tap into the research being conducted in the University’s programs for health affairs, medicine, public health and pharmacy, some of which are among the top programs in the nation.

Applied science was one of the four areas UNC Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts established in March for the University to pursue. The other three are enrollment planning, a physical master plan and generative artificial intelligence. Each area has a working group. “There is increasing demand for specialized fields like biomedical engineering, applied sciences, data science, and environmental engineering, among others,” according to the chancellor’s office website. “This committee will evaluate how the University can produce graduates in high demand fields while complementing existing programs and meeting critical state needs.”

The House budget proposal “reflects a recognition of UNC-Chapel Hill’s important role in driving innovation and meeting North Carolina’s growing demand for degrees in applied sciences,” said University spokesman Kevin Best ’93.

Best said the new school would “leverage the benefits of UNC’s existing world-class research and strengths in life sciences, biomedical and pharmaceutical research programs,” while complementing “the existing strengths of other UNC System institutions.”

Carolina is the only top 10 public university in the country that does not have an engineering school. UNC is ranked the fourth-best public school in the country and 22nd among all schools, according to the 2024 Best Colleges rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

Chair of the Faculty Beth Moracco ’92 (MPH, ’99 PhD) said she was surprised about the new school, which she heard about on social media. “It has not been discussed in faculty governance or among faculty recently,” she said. Moracco said it was her understanding the group will present its findings in August. “It seems like they’re putting the cart before the horse,” she said.

Some kind of engineering program at Carolina has been discussed for months. In September 2023, N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore ’92 told the North Carolina Tribune, a business publication launched in 2022 to cover state government, that he’d been talking to other state legislators about bringing engineering back to Carolina. Moore said he believed the state needed another engineering school to position itself to meet what is expected to be a growing demand for their skills, and Carolina is the proper place to house another school, according to the Tribune.

— Laurie D. Willis ’86