About PUPR:

Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR) is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with an enrollment of about 6,000 students, and is the largest private Hispanic Serving Engineering School in the United States. PUPR’s student enrollment is Hispanic U.S. citizens of which about 90% are undergraduates and about 25% are females. PUPR is located on a ten-acre piece of land in the heart of the financial district of the capital San Juan of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory, about the size of the state of Connecticut, and with a population of about four million, the vast majority of which are Hispanic U.S. citizens.

PUPR operates on a semester-hour-equivalent trimester in which 45 contact hours corresponds to three credits. Accordingly, a three-credit-hour undergraduate (graduate) course meets twice (once) weekly for a total of four contact hours. The minimum number of credit hours that an undergraduate (graduate) student can take to be considered a full-time student is twelve (six) per trimester. Classes are taught in Spanish or English, but textbooks are in English, and it is expected that students present most of their written work in English.

PUPR offers baccalaureate degrees in engineering (civil, chemical, computer, electrical, environmental, industrial, and mechanical), computer science, architecture, business administration, management, and land surveying. PUPR also offers masters in engineering (civil, computer, electrical, manufacturing), computer science, engineering management, manufacturing competitiveness, environmental management, landscape architecture, and business administration.

The quality of PUPR’s academic programs is demonstrated by the accreditation and recognition from the following agencies:

• The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSACS);

• The Council of Higher Education of Puerto Rico (CHE-PR);

•  The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredits all of our undergraduate Engineering programs (Civil, Chemical, Computer, Electrical, Environmental, Industrial, and Mechanical), and Land Surveying and Mapping program.

• The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accredits PUPR’s Architecture undergraduate program;

• The International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) accredits PUPR’s school of management;

•    The National Security Agency recognizes PUPR as one of the nations Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education; and
  

• PUPR is an associate member of Oak Ridge Associated Universities.

In addition, in May 2008, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that “The nation’s top producers of Hispanic engineers are the public University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and the private Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. Together they account for about a fifth of the 4,614 bachelor’s degrees in engineering that American institutions awarded to Hispanic students in 2005. Most of the other institutions with high rankings on that list are public universities in Florida and Texas.” Thus, given the fact that PUPR produces one out of ten Hispanic engineers, it is of great importance to support such institution to fulfill the national need.

PUPR’s five-year undergraduate and two-year graduate programs have gained an outstanding reputation in Puerto Rico over the years for producing highly skilled and workforce-ready talent. Consequently, PUPR graduates are placed in graduate schools, while others join government or private sector scientific facilities. PUPR graduates progress well in their chosen careers. Accordingly, numerous fortune 500 and fortune 100 companies, federal agencies such as Federal Highway Authority, Patent and Trademark Office, Army Research Office, Department of Defense, NASA, NSA, to mention a few, and local industry and government are recruiting PUPR graduates every year.

The geopolitical state of Puerto Rico makes it harder for students to relocate to the US Mainland. The fact that it is an island makes it harder and more expensive for its residents to visit the US Mainland and increases the isolation. Moreover, Puerto Rico is a US territory and not a state, which makes it unable to access federal funds that are otherwise available for states. Furthermore, the first language in Puerto Rico is Spanish, which makes the students hesitate to communicate in English as it is not their language of daily use.  In addition, unlike the case in the U.S. Mainland, in Puerto Rico lower socio-economic income students generally attend private colleges and universities and middle and upper middle class students attend the public university system. As a result, private higher education institutions on the Island have historically provided access to higher education for lower income students. This has been both a source of pride and challenge for the University. As a result, PUPR serves students from a target area that is characterized by economic deprivation, large concentration of disadvantaged population, and a low educational attainment.  

The geographic and socio-economical conditions of the region present barriers against completion of high school and subsequent college enrollment and graduation. Accordingly, PUPR’s students typically have to struggle to pay for their school and other expenses which force them to work full-time outside the University campus while being registered as full-time students. This hardship forces other students to register part-time while working full-time to support their education and make ends meet. Thus, about half of PUPR’s student enrolment is part-time. The tendency of the students to work outside campus negatively impacts their grades, time to perform any research-related task and their inclination to join a graduate school. This is if students were able to stay in school and continue their education.

The grim reality is that the undergraduate retention rate at PUPR is less than 35%. According to an institutional report, the average annual withdrawal for first year students (1995-2005) is 22%, for second year students (1995-2004) is 20%, for third year students (1995-2003) is 10%, for fourth year students (1995-2002) is 7%, and for fifth year students (1995-2001) is 5%. Therefore, with some support, PUPR can double or triple its production of Hispanic engineers from one out of ten to fulfill the national need and better serve the local population of Puerto Rico.

• PUPR Nuclear Education Fellowship Program (NEFP)
• NSF S-STEM Scholarship Program