By Katherine Frank, Chancellor
University of Wisconsin-Stout
At its August board meeting, the Universities of Wisconsin Board of Regents voted to officially revise Regent Policy Document 1-1, Mission Statements, to include a new category of institution—polytechnic. Among the 13 Universities of Wisconsin, it designated UW-Stout as its sole member.
Beyond the Midwest, the polytechnic designation is more common: Cal Poly, MIT, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech. All are recognizable names, and each is a polytechnic university. For Blue Devils, the distinction simply recognizes the education they have been earning for decades, and many are likely surprised this recognition did not come sooner.
There are thousands of traditional four-year universities and two-year colleges throughout the U.S. By contrast, only 3% of U.S. universities are polytechnics. And as others begin to market themselves as “career-ready” and “hands-on,” what substantively separates a polytechnic from the traditional four-year and two-year higher education options might, at first glance, seem difficult to decipher.
At UW-Stout, we refer to the polytechnic ABCs: Applied learning and research, Business and industry collaboration, and Career-focused experiences. These are the hallmarks of what we do best and are at the core of our polytechnic university. They are part of every student’s experience whether a student pursues engineering, a technology-forward field, art and design, management, or any other program at UW-Stout, and these ABCs contribute to the unmatched value we provide to our students, the future workforce.
Stout’s Polytechnic advantage is why 99% of our graduates are employed in their field of study within six months of graduation and why we have maintained a near perfect employment rate for more than 15 years. It is why our graduates earn one of the highest average starting salaries among UW universities and why more than 50 Fortune 500 companies hire them each year. And it is why employers consistently rate our students above their national peers on leadership, communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and other competencies.
Preparing students for professional and post-graduate success is what we do and have done best for decades at UW-Stout.
Converting cranberry waste to biodegradable food packaging. Improving road conditions, water security, and waste disposal in remote rural areas. Developing highway barriers from post-consumer plastic. Enhancing rural access to cultural heritage artifacts through improved 3D digital rendering. Designing protective base-layer fashion for workers who wear chemically treated uniforms. Using robotics to create automated solutions for industry partners. This is what applied learning and research look like in practice: impactful solutions applied to real problems. These examples, and so many more, started with students, faculty, and staff at Stout.
Polytechnic education is not only about what or how our students learn, but also where they learn. Stout’s labs and studio spaces outnumber traditional classrooms by three to one, and students work in these industry-aligned environments as soon as their first week of class: Labs for robotics, biotechnology, energy, construction, packaging, instrumentation, welding, and other professional fields. A foundry. Motion capture, industrial design, game design studios, and so much more. These spaces are incubators for ideas, problem-solving, and innovation. And they are designed so Stout students learn to critically examine, manage, and solve the real challenges that other students may only hear or read about in their classes.
Thanks to our business and industry partners, research and development projects are embedded at each step in a Stout education. Annual relationships with more than 700 companies, including partners like 3M, Andersen Windows, Phillips Medisize, Greenheck, EVCO, Prent, Room & Board, Fastenal, Forbes and Great Northern Company, ensure our students have access to industry experts, sponsored projects, paid internships, and other opportunities that replicate the cross-functional team scenario they will encounter after they graduate. And thanks to representatives from these companies and other industry professionals who sit on the program advisory committees for every academic degree program at Stout, our programs reflect the current and future skill sets graduates will need to not only outperform others on the job, but also to lead and manage others in the workplace.
So, what is distinct about a polytechnic education? We prepare graduates to see and solve problems on day one, to lead and manage innovative change, and to advance in their careers. How and where we teach ensures graduates develop communication, critical-thinking, and technology-forward skills in a real-world environment.
This is why UW-Stout continues to meet workforce needs at a higher rate than anyone else in Wisconsin, demonstrating time and time again that a strong polytechnic university is good for the Universities of Wisconsin and for the state.
