Incorporating global skills within UK higher education of engineers

“works in partnership with development agencies, aid
workers and indigenous communities to provide engineering
design and training in appropriate technologies” and
provides 3rd and 4th year students with research projects.⁵⁷

Design projects offer opportunities for multidisciplinary team
working, problem solving and project planning and placing
engineering within a wider context: These are all skills which
support the global dimension. One example of this in prac-
tice is Imperial Racing Green⁵⁸, a cross-faculty project where
students from Aeronautics, Chemical Engineering, Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, Earth Science Engineering,
Materials and Mechanical Engineering are supported by staff
to design, build and race a zero-emission electric hybrid fuel
cell racing cart. A similar example is provided by mechanical
engineering students at Queen’s University Belfast entering
the annual Formula Student competition. The endeavour is
undertaken in a similar manner to running an engineering
business, with the students undertaking the full range of
technical and managerial roles necessary to complete the
project successfully and providing opportunities to develop
key skills through an authentic design-build project.⁵⁹

There are other design competitions open to engineering
and built environment students such as the 2005 Sustainable
Construction Centre Architecture Design Competition and
Ecohouse student design competition⁶⁰ and the Royal
Academy of Engineering’s Sustainable Engineering Design
competition, this year won by students from Loughbor-
ough.⁶¹ Loughborough University has created a ‘toolbox’
for other lecturers in engineering and design who recognise
the importance of including Sustainable Design in under-
graduate and postgraduate courses.⁶²

Management, business, innovation and enter-
prise skills

Where project management and business skills are included
in the curriculum, there is an opportunity to develop trans-
ferable skills and explore global issues such as:

■ Global skills required by employers.

■ The impact of globalisation on engineering employment.

■ Global business drivers (such as innovation, poverty
reduction and climate change).

■ Global futures in the engineering sector.

■ The importance of multi-disciplinary, team working in
engineering.

■ The importance of understanding the social, economic,
environmental, cultural and political context.

■ Global business ethics and corporate responsibility.

The Applied Ethics programme at Leeds University CETL
organized a conference on Engineering Ethics in 2006.⁶³
Leading on from this, where enterprise and innovation are
included in the curriculum, there is opportunity to explore
the important role of innovation, enterprise and technology
has to play in addressing climate change and poverty. The
use of diverse case studies, active learning methodologies
and working with other faculties and schools within the
university such as business, politics and development can all
help incorporate social and environmental dimensions within
the business and enterprise education of engineering
students. One area students, academics and employers
agree upon is the need for courses to be more practically
relevant and to develop the practical, problem-solving and
creative skills.⁶⁴ Work placements are vital in giving students
practical experience. By offering a broad range of place-
ments - especially with employers who work internationally
such as international development NGOs, students can gain
a more global perspective on engineering (see partnerships
with business).

Innovative pedagogies and team based working

Despite the constraints identified earlier, there is evidence
of growing support and interest amongst undergraduate
teaching staff in teaching methods which enable students to
participate and engage in learning, rather than acting as
passive sponges of received wisdom. In core engineering
(mathematics and engineering science), lecture based
learning is often the most appropriate and preferred
teaching method. However such teaching methods provide
little or no opportunity for group working, critical reflection,
discourse and examination of contested and complex issues
and do nothing to develop transferable skills such as team
working, communication skills or the ability to think ‘outside
the box’.

Role play, simulation and action learning in general (as pop-
ularised by educationalists such as Paulo Friere⁶⁵ and Robert
Chambers ) are one of the most useful ways to bring out
learning in development processes. Not only do they provide
the space and opportunity to explore complex issues in
imaginative ways which actively involve learners, they can
also be used to introduce students to the application and
value of participatory learning techniques within both inter-
national development and organisational learning and
management. Participatory techniques such as participatory
rural appraisal and participatory action and learning have
become highly influential across development thinking. They
also have wider application in business management and
developing transferable skills. Similar approaches to learning
are found in the worlds of business or change/management
consultancy, for example Peter Senge’s work on Learning
Organisations⁶⁷ and any number of management textbooks.
The use of role play and simulations is common to many
disciplines. For example, in medicine, with actors role playing
patients and in law with actors role playing clients in court
room exchanges.

Innovative learning encourages more critical and inde-
pendent thinking and awareness of context. Lecturers can
gain further guidance through dedicated centres which
promote innovation in teaching and participatory or creative
learning, such as: the Centre for Educational Development at
Imperial College⁶⁸, Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry⁶⁹
and Promoting Enhanced Student Learning⁷⁰ at Nottingham
University and the HEFCE funded Centres for Excellence in
Teaching and Learning (CETLs)⁷¹ and amongst facilitators
and trainers within the NGO and business training world.
However not all students welcome such approaches.

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