Incorporating global skills within UK higher education of engineers

Careers advice

EWB-UK survey of engineering students found careers advice
focuses on traditional career paths with multi-national com-
panies and management consultancies and those students
with an interest in and commitment to poverty reduction
and/or working overseas felt poorly served. These students
need clear advice and encouragement to consider engi-
neering as a pathway into international relief and
development or sectors such as water engineering which
make a significant contribution to international develop-
ment. Often the most direct route for an engineer is to gain
a minimum of 2-3 years professional experience with an
international engineering company before seeking a role in
international development since few agencies will employ
staff without this professional experience. Here there is a
role for organisations such as the Engineering and Tech-
nology Board and Women Into Science, Engineering and
Construction (WISE) that are responsible for promoting engi-
neering to prospective students, to work with schools and
universities to promote this message and develop their
capacity in this area. Careers officers in schools, colleges and
universities need support in gathering and giving students
access to advice on careers related to development or
working internationally. Bristol and Manchester Universities
as well as NGOs such as RedR, World Service Enquiry and
AidWorkers.net offer such guidance on international devel-
opment careers and represent a valuable body of
knowledge.⁹³

Professional development

As mentioned previously, a lack of appropriate skills and
knowledge amongst teaching staff and the lack of status of
undergraduate teaching in general have been identified as
significant constraints in implementing the global dimension
within engineering education. The university meetings pro-
posed the following solutions

■ Drawing on external expertise such as from the Higher
Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre, Visiting
professors, NGOs and business

■ Investing in professional development and training of
teaching staff and staff within accrediting bodies
including funding staff time for networking, knowledge
sharing and industrial secondments

■ Strengthening the capacity of university staff training and
development offices and drawing on relevant capacity
and experience from other universities (e.g. Leeds
Metropolitan University courses)

■ Giving teaching ability greater consideration during
recruitment and professional reviews of professors and
lecturers

Curriculum review processes

‘The accreditation process for university engineering courses
should be proactive in driving the development and
updating of course content, rather than being a passive
auditing exercise .... should actively inform the development
of course content to ensure that courses produce graduates
that industry will want to employ’ (RAEng, 2007).

National accrediting bodies and those organisations which
influence and work closely with them (such as the sector
skills councils, the Engineering Council, the Engineering Pro-
fessors Council and the Royal Academy of Engineering) are
ideally placed to shape the future of engineering education.
This publication makes the business case as to why industry
requires the global dimension, sustainability and poverty
reduction to be at the heart of engineering education. In
seeking to ensure courses meet industry needs, accrediting
body guidance should reflect the needs of global society and
the world’s poor and not just the needs of advanced engi-
neering and UK industry. Their guidance needs to be future
proofed and global in perspective. The accreditation and cur-
riculum review process offers one of the greatest
opportunities to drive this agenda forward. National accred-
iting bodies should draw on external expertise to inform
their own work as well as making this expertise available to
engineering faculties and course review panels during cur-
riculum review. Universities would benefit from greater
support in how to structure the process of course evaluation,
review and development in order to respond to the global
and poverty agendas. One way to redress the imbalance in
priorities between research and teaching, especially at the
Russell group universities, is to link funding to excellence in
teaching much as the Research Assessment Exercise does
with research.

Inter-university, national and
international strategies

Sharing good practice

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) provides subject-spe-
cific support for enhancing the student learning experience
through 24 subject centres including engineering and built
environment as well as the Centres for Excellence in Teaching
and Learning previously referred to. This support includes a
database of publications, research, teaching resources, small
grant funding, seminars and networks. Both within and
between universities, networks and virtual communities of
practice keep researchers, post-graduate students and
teaching staff in contact and promote multi-disciplinarity:
Examples include (1) CAMTools - run by Caret - at Cam-
bridge University, (2) Intute which provides online gateways
to education resources including engineering and develop-
ment⁹⁴, (3) Teaching for Learning Network, (4) Collaborative
Research Networks at Birmingham University and (5) Engi-
neering Professors Council as well as the engineering
institutions.

Education centres

Education centres play a vital role in providing educational
field visits, practical demonstrations, design and construction
simulations and opportunities for research collaboration as
well as developing problem solving, team working and

The Global Engineer Page 25

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