DEFIANCE — Students at Defiance College can now earn both a math degree at Defiance and a civil or electrical engineering degree from the University of North Dakota.

The project takes advantage of UND’s long history of offering fully accredited online engineering degrees. Defiance is the 10th campus with which UND’s College of Engineering & Mines now partners with in dual-degree programs.

“The College of Engineering and Mines has been a pioneer in distance engineering education for over three decades,” said UND’s dean, Brian Tande. “The capabilities we have developed allow us to deliver our programs in innovative ways in order to reach students for whom an engineering degree would not otherwise be accessible.

“We’re very excited to be able to add Defiance College to our list of partners,” Tande said. “This agreement will allow students to study engineering and prepare themselves for a wealth of career opportunities while also benefiting from Defiance’s very student-focused learning environment.”

For Defiance, the new partnership offers a new opportunity that the college can provide for its students, said President Richanne Mankey.

“When I arrived at Defiance College, I did a listening tour,” Mankey said. “I spoke with people on campus, of course, but also with community leaders and business owners. I asked them, ‘What do you need from Defiance College?’

“The answer was engineers and welders,” Mankey said. “I then said, ‘Well, we probably can’t do welding, but let me see what we can do about engineering.’”

Defiance College students who study for a math degree on campus can simultaneously take online courses to earn a UND engineering degree. Defiance students will travel to Grand Forks over the summer to experience labs in that university’s state-of-the-art facilities.

“We’ve had a large number of prospective students who’ve been interested in engineering over the years, and we’re thrilled to be able to meet that need,” said Agnes Caldwell, academic dean at Defiance College and vice president of academic affairs.

“We have already started talking about the partnership with our new students at their recent orientation, and a number of our current students also have asked about it. Defiance is adding faculty in both math and physics, with the goal of making sure students who take the dual-degree track have all the support on campus that they need,” Caldwell said.

The agreement calls for Defiance students to take a total of five years to complete their two degrees.