Expanding diversity in STEM: Developing international education and research partnerships in a global society

Describes the process of building a successful education and research relationship between the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, WA, USA and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, QLD, Australia with a focus on recruitment of diverse students who traditionally have not participated in study abroad programs. The UW has a gap in terms of underrepresented minorities and/or women engaged in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related study abroad programs as well as STEM majors. International study-abroad programs primarily focus on social science disciplines and there are few opportunities for international studies in STEM fields such as aerospace engineering. The program described in this paper began as an engineering-focused study abroad program operated by the UW with QUT as the host university. At its inception, the goal of the program was to develop a holistic and community based approach for building a program around the student experience with a focus on women and underrepresented students. This involves equal participation from the faculty director, program staff, host university personnel and industry. This program is unique in that it has blossomed to a collaborative research relationship over the course of four years. In addition to conducting annual study abroad programs at QUT, students involved in this program have continued to perform research with their home university while collaborating with the host university. Bi-directional student exchange for research internships and technical publications have materialized from this relationship.