HOUGHTON - Michigan Technological University is introducing a new bachelor of science in engineering, with a technical emphasis in mining engineering.
"That has been a degree here and went away," said President Glenn Mroz at the campus forum Tuesday. "Now we are bringing it back. We will be accepting students into mining engineering."
Mroz said the next step is to bring together a panel of professionals across the university to put together a rigorous mining program for the 21st century.
"This is not to go back to exactly what we had before, but to what is needed going forward," he said.
The new accredited program will be interdisciplinary with faculty from across campus and the addition of new courses weaved with existing ones. The program will be available in the fall of 2012.
"It's not your grandfather's mining anymore," Wayne Pennington, chair of geological and mining engineering and sciences, said in a release from Tech. "Mining today is so different, and this new program will be tailored to that."
The degree comes after seeing a need for mining engineers globally. The new degree will fuse modern technology with traditional practices and new future faculty may be needed as enrollment in the program grows.
Pennington announced the new degree program Wednesday at the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration conference in Marquette. Mroz said Pennington has been working on this project for many years.
"He's really happy to be seeing success with this," Mroz said.