Arctic Yearbook 2014 | Page 40

40 Arctic Yearbook 2014 they grew up with, largely as a result of the disruption caused by the same foreign system, and it inevitably affects both their commitment to education and their ability to cope with the intercultural challenges. Discussion The Arctic engineering education has been a success in the sense that it supplies to Greenland Greenlandic engineers, who exhibit solid knowledge of the Greenlandic society and the technical challenges associated with the extreme Arctic climate. The success is best measured by the fact that all graduates have a job, with 95% of the Greenlandic engineers and a couple of the Danish working in Greenland. There is great demand for the Arctic engineers in Greenland. However, it has still not been possible to solve the challenges that arise from the fact that some of the Greenlandic students begin with inadequate prerequisites, and many start the program without sufficient academic levels in Danish, mathematics and natural sciences from their primary and secondary educations, the latter of which is still provided in most students’ second language. It is very difficult for a higher education institution to raise the level of the basic prerequisite areas, while the students have to follow the rapid progression in the engineering disciplines. As a consequence, the focus is now on guiding the students that