N.C. House proposes new engineering school at UNC

Last week, the N.C. House of Representatives proposed an $8 million budget change that could bring back UNC’s long-dormant engineering program by establishing the School of Applied Science and Technology.

House Bill 263 — the 2024 Appropriations Act — proposed many state budget alterations, the most significant to UNC being the potential budget change and new school at the University. 

The bill wrote that the new school will focus on programming relevant to research, industry partnerships and state workforce needs, including areas of study like conservation, computer science, engineering, biological and medical sciences, mathematics and physical sciences.

The bill delineated that the University should reorganize existing programs that align with these subjects into the new school. It also wrote that the Board of Governors will review other existing UNC programs and consider "consolidating or eliminating" programs with a low return on investment or low enrollment, and reinvest any savings garnered into academic programs with higher ROIs or enrollment rates.

For the University to implement the school, the N.C. Senate must approve the House’s proposal. The process requires the two chambers to end their budget stalemate surrounding K-12 private school vouchers and child care center grants, as a part of which, the Senate has expressed that it is not open to the House’s plan.

The Daily Tar Heel reached out to six of the sponsors and cosponsors of the House’s proposal but was unable to obtain comment about the bill.

A probable legislative hiatus regarding the state budget until later this summer leaves the finalization of this new school up in the air.

UNC’s previous School of Applied Science was established in 1908, from which the School of Engineering was later born in 1922. The engineering school was transferred to N.C. State in 1935.

In 2003, the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering was founded, allowing UNC and N.C. State students to earn a degree in biomedical and health sciences engineering from both universities. Being able to study medicine at UNC and engineering at N.C. State, prospective biomedical engineering students like UNC rising first-year Jade Liu said she can hope to learn from the best of each field.

“I knew that [UNC] was where I wanted to go,” Liu said. “I toured the campus and I loved it, and I was like ‘I got the best of both worlds’ by doing biomedical engineering since it’s a joint program.”

With the possible addition of a School of Applied Science and Technology at UNC, bearing in mind the 2024 Appropriations Act’s reorganization requirement for other UNC programs, there is a possibility for change in the biomedical engineering department. Liu said she was optimistic about the potential development.

Liu said that UNC adding an engineering school would be a great opportunity for a lot of students, saying that some students may decide not to apply to UNC because they do not currently have an engineering program.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for me too,” Liu said. “Just in case I don’t like BME, maybe I can switch to a different engineering path.”

Rising junior Sam Carew, a current dually enrolled biomedical engineering student, said she greatly values the resources afforded to her by having access to both UNC and N.C. State’s campuses, professors and classes. 

“I think that I really prefer this program to the idea of just having the [N.C. State] College of Engineering at UNC,” Carew said.

Carew said that the joint biomedical engineering program is well-established and that she doubts that the addition of the new school would end it, but that the program could change because of students’ preferences.

“If UNC continues to advance in the classes it offers and gains more resources for those engineering classes that maybe will start to be offered at UNC, I think that a lot more people would choose not to go to N.C. State for those courses,” Carew said.

The Daily Tar Heel was unable to obtain comment from leadership in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC.

The bill also wrote that the budget would fund a new STEM building as part of the school's implementation. Rising first-year Justin Han plans to major in computer science. He said he thought that the building would be vital to foster connectivity and innovation among students in STEM programs.

“The STEM field is all about cooperation, so it’s important to have a place where we can all gather around and do something together,” Han said.

In an email with The Daily Tar Heel, Kevin Best, senior director of UNC Media Relations, provided the University's statement on the potential new school, writing that interim Chancellor Lee Roberts has established a working committee for applied sciences, which has been meeting with leadership, faculty and other individuals over the past few months in preparation for the potential new school.

“The University appreciates [the] inclusion of this important initiative in the House budget and looks forward to working with members of the General Assembly as a budget is finalized,” UNC Media Relations wrote.

CLARIFICATION: An amendment to the budget altered the description of the engineering program to a "school" and language around addressing programs with low enrollment or return on investment.

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