Intercultural competency among doctoral students

Although there has been growing attention to prepare undergraduates for a global engineering workforce, relatively less attention has been given to doctoral students. Yet, solving many engineering challenges require advanced scientific and technological training and partnerships across national borders. Therefore, this study examines factors associated with higher intercultural competency levels among engineering graduate students using the Miville-Guzman Universality-Diversity Scale short form (MGUDS-S). MGUDS-S measures the ability to appreciate similarities and differences between individuals. Methods include descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares regression. Results show that multilingual proficiency is positively associated with higher scores on the MGUDS-S. Consistent with previous literature, women and international students are more likely to have higher scores on the MGUDS-S. The findings have broad implications for helping academic institutions and key stakeholders to develop strategies toward the professional formation of engineering doctoral students who can engage in an increasingly globalized environment.