Gary Schuster

Georgia Tech students will enter an ever-competitive workplace with an education second to none, newly named Provost Gary Schuster told the Alumni Association Board of Trustees on Sept. 8.

"Students need to compete in the 21st century," Schuster stated, observing this is an age when jobs, including engineering, are being outsourced to India and China.

"We have a responsibility to provide our students with the tools that are necessary for them to succeed. They have to be in a position to compete with very smart people who are being educated around the world. We have to offer values to society greater than others can offer for less price.

"We have to design our curriculum so our students leave Georgia Tech with the skills to succeed in jobs that will not be outsourced," he said. "We don't want our students to be in a race to be the low-cost providers."

Tech's business is knowledge, Schuster stressed at the board's quarterly meeting in the Griffin Ballroom of the Alumni House.

"One of our primary responsibilities is to preserve the knowledge of our culture and our society," he said. "Our responsibility is to transfer that knowledge to the next generation. That's an awesome responsibility. Our third responsibility is to create knowledge. Georgia Tech is an amazing engine of knowledge creation.

"Georgia Tech has had a remarkable history," Schuster said, "but the very best days of this institution are still in front of it."