Incorporating global skills within UK higher education of engineers

Stage 3: Identifying opportunities to embed the global dimension

Embedding within the undergraduate
curriculum

“In our view the greatest contribution higher education has
to make to sustainable development is by enabling students
to develop new values, skills and knowledge. The main
(though not the only) way to make this happen is through
developments in curricula and pedagogy.” HEFCE

The following section identifies some of the ways in which
global issues and thinking have been embedded within
curricula and pedogogy.

Ethos and core values

The shifts described earlier towards embracing complexity,
uncertainty, diversity of perspectives, critical analysis, change
and interconnection and inter-disciplinary thinking could be
said to run counter to engineering culture with its
foundations set in empirical certainties and scientific
method. Grappling with messy global problems and complex
contexts is unfamiliar territory for much of engineering
education. However, it is very much part of modern
engineering. Change has been a constant feature of higher
education especially in recent times. For engineering
education in particular and higher education in general, the
challenge of embedding the global dimension especially
sustainability and development is a difficult one which for
some universities will represent considerable change in the

Page 18 The Global Engineer

culture, ethos and values. However in a global knowledge
economy, HEIs are obliged to embrace the global if they are
to remain relevant. The examples given under university wide
strategies show how some universities are embracing this
agenda and placing the global dimension at the heart of
their ethos, values and corporate strateg

Core and elective lectures and modules

One of the key strategies the authors propose for embed-
ding the global dimension is to map how the global
dimension can be aligned with other learning outcomes
specified under by the Engineering Council’s UK Standard
for Professional Engineering Competence: The Accreditation
of Higher Education Programmes⁵². The global dimension is
most readily incorporated into modules addressing business,
enterprise and project management, design and feasibility
studies, environmental sustainability, science and society and
human rights and ethics. One of the keenest debates in
engineering education is the balance between depth and
breadth when addressing the global dimension and how
best to embed these issues.

Should the global dimension be taught through separate
modules (such as at the Sustainable Development module at
Imperial College or the ‘Making a difference: global social
responsibility’ module at Leeds Metropolitan) or embedded
across existing modules and in project and design elements
or a combination of both? Should climate change, sustain-

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