International Engineering Education: Proceedings of the INAE-CAETS-IITM Conference, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India 1 - 2 March 2007

International Engineering Education Proceedings of the INA[-CA[IS-IIIM Conference

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International Engineering Education Proceedings of the INA£-CA£TS-IITM Conference In~ian Institute of lec~nolo~~, Ma~ras, Innia

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RNatarajan, M~ Anant~ &M~in~a~erumal Innian Institute of Tec~nolo~~, Manras, Innia

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World Scientific

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INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION Proceedings of the INAE Conference

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PREFACE In recent years, several National Academies of Engineering have identified Engineering Education as one of their major issues of concern. Some of the themes include : development and education of engineers; enhancing and promoting engineering education; increasing attractiveness of engineering education and retention of students; quality of engineering education offerings; promoting industry-institute interaction; research and Ph.D. education; engineering education and engineers for the XXI century. The two US National Academy of Engineering Reports: "The Engineer of 2020- Visions of Engineering in the New Century"; and "Educating the Engineer of 2020- Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century", have dwelt on how the Engineering Education System has to be re-engineered in order to meet the emerging demands on the engineering graduates, such as the requisite knowledge, skills and attitudes that confer employability in the present, and a foundation that enables them to function effectively and productively in the future which has not yet unfolded, and whose contours will be decided by them. Three important institutions, viz., Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS), and Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), have come together to organize this Conference on International Engineering Education at IIT Madras. We had 24 invited presentations during the Conference, covering 8 important themes, drawn from 10 countries. Some of the objectives of this Conference included: exchange of information on individual National Engineering Systems of CAETS Member Academies; promotion of interaction between Fellows of CAETS Member Academies; exploring the potential for bilateral/multilateral collaboration; and focusing attention on Engineering Education as a predominant concern of Engineering Academies. It is believed that most of these expectations have been fulfilled. On behalf of the International Advisory Committee, it is a pleasure to express our grateful thanks to the Secretariats of CAETS, INAE and IIT Madras; Sponsors; the Invited Speakers; Chairmen of Sessions; Delegates; and Members of the Local Organizing Committee who have contributed generously of their time and energy. Prof. R. Natarajan Co-Chairman International Advisory Committee

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ADVISORY COMMITTEE Dr. K. Kasturirangan, President, INAE Dr. P.S. Goel, President-Elect, INAE Prof. R. Natarajan, Vice President, INAE

Chairman Co-Chairman Co-Chairman

Members Prof. Jun-ichi Nishizawa, President-Elect, CAETS Dr. William C. Salmon, Secretary and Treasurer, CAETS Ing. Arturo J. Bignoli, President, ANI, ARGENTINA Dr. J.W. Zillman AO FfSE, President, ATSE, AUSTRALIA Dr. Kathleen Sendall, President, CAE, CANADA Prof. XU Kuangdi, President, CAE, CHINA Prof. Zlatko Kniewald, President, HATZ, CROATIA Prof. Petr Zuna, President, EA CR, CZECH REPUBLIC Prof. Torben Greve, Chairman, ATV, DENMARK Prof. Matti Pursula, Chairman, FACTE, FINLAND Dr. Francois Guinot, President, NATF, FRANCE Prof. Joachim Milberg, Chairman, acatech, GERMANY Prof. Janos Ginsztler, President, HAE, HUNGARY Dr. Tsuneo Nakahara, President, EAJ, JAPAN Dr. Wook Hyun Kwon, Vice President, NAEK, KOREA MC Gerardo Ferrando Bravo, President, AI, MEXICO Ir. Jan Zuidam, President, NFTW, NETHERLANDS Prof. Asbj0rn Rolstadas, President, NTV A, NORWAY Dr. P.W.B. (Bingle) Kruger, President, SAAE, SOUTH AFRICA Prof. Enrique Alarcon, President, RAI, SPAIN Prof. Lena Torell, President, IV A, SWEDEN Prof. Dr. Rene Dandliker, President, SATW, SWITZERLAND Lord Alec Broers, President, RAEng, UNITED KINGDOM Lord Browne, FREng, FRS, UNITED KINGDOM Dr. Wm. A. Wulf, President, NAE, UNITED STATES Eng. Eduardo Alvarez Mazza, President, ANI, URUGUAY Dr. Damodar Acharya, Chairman, AICTE Prof. M.S. Ananth, Director, lIT Madras Dr. Baldev Raj, Foreign Secretary, INAE Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, lIT Madras vii

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Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Past President, INAE Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, DG, CSIR Dr. A.E. Muthunayagam, Chairman, BOG, lIT Madras Dr. M. Natarajan, DG, DRDO Dr. A. Ramakrishna, Immediate Past President, INAE Prof. C.V. Ramakrishnan, Former Honorary Secretary, INAE Prof. P. Rama Rao, Former President, INAE Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, DST Mr. K.V. Rangaswami, President, L&T ECC, Chennai Dr. Placid Rodriguez, Vice President, INAE Dr. D.V. Singh, Chairman, Engineering Education Forum, INAE Dr. M.J. Zarabi, Honorary Secretary, INAE

ORGANISING COMMITTEE Prof. S. Narayanan, Chairman Prof. M. Singaperumal, Co-Chairman Members Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, lIT Madras Prof. V. Ganesan, lIT Madras Prof. M. Govardhan, IIT Madras Prof. V.G. Idichandy, IIT Madras Prof. David Koilpillai, IIT Madras Prof. K. Krishnaiah, IIT Madras Brig. S.c. Marwaha, Executive Secretary, INAE Prof. S. Mohan, IIT Madras Prof. T.T. Narendran, IIT Madras Prof. K. Ramamurthy, IIT Madras Prof. S. Santhakumar, IIT Madras Prof. S. Srinivasa Murthy, lIT Madras Prof. T. Sundararajan, IIT Madras Prof. R. Sundaravadivelu, lIT Madras

EVENT SPONSORS Apple Computer International Pvt. Ltd. Edutech Chennai L & T - ECC Chennai Sun Microsystems India Private Limited Bangalore Tata Consulting Services Chennai ix

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INAE - IITM - CAETS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION; lIT MADRAS; MARCH 1-2,2007 1. Conference Report The International Conference on Engineering Education was organized by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) jointly with Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) under the banner of the Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS) at lIT Madras, during March 1-2,2007. The proposal for the Conference was presented to CAETS at its Council Meeting in Brussels on May 31, 2006 and was approved unanimously as a CAETS event. The major objectives of the Conference were: • Exchange of Information on individual National Engineering Education systems of CAETS member Academies • Compilation of "Fact Files" on the Engineering Systems of Member Academies. • Promotion of interaction between Fellows of CAETS Member Academies • Sharing of experiences and learning of Best Practices from each other. • Exploring the Potential for bilateral/multilateral collaboration. • Focusing attention on Engineering Education as an important concern of Engineering Academies. The Conference was attended by Fellows from the following nine CAETS Member Academies: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States. 2. The invited papers were presented in 8 sessions under the following themes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Engineering Education for the XXI century Country-specific Issues in Engineering Education Industry and GATS Perspectives in Engineering Education Domain-specific Issues in Engineering Education TEL, Globalization and Consortium Research Issues in Engineering Education 6. Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Engineering Education 7. Excellence, Equity and Ethics in Engineering Education 8. Issues of Significance in Engineering Education xi

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The Conference was inaugurated by Dr. Ani! Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, and Past President, INAE; and was presided over by Dr.P.S.Goel, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences and current President of INAE. During the Inaugural Session, Prof. M.S.Ananth, FNAE, Director, lIT Madras welcomed the gathering; Prof. R. Natarajan, FNAE, immediate past Vice-President, INAE, and Co-Chairman of the International Advisory Committee described the raison d'etre for the conference and the scope of the themes to be discussed. Dr. William Salmon, Executive Secretary and Treasurer of CAETS explained the origin, membership and the activities of CAETS - past, present and future. He made reference to the two recent futuristic reports brought out by the National Academy of Engineering, USA: • "The Engineer of 2020 - Visions of Engineering in the New Century", The National Academies Press, 2004. • "Educating the Engineer of 2020 - Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century", The National Academies Press, 2005. The Abstracts of the invited papers were compiled, published and distributed to all the Delegates. The video recordings, synchronised with the power-point presentations, as a DVD was also brought out subsequently. The Conference was attended, in addition to the Invited Speakers - both from India and abroad - by several INAE Fellows; IITM Faculty Members; and Delegates, drawn from the Principals, Deans, Heads of Departments and Faculty of Engineering Colleges. The total number of Delegates was: 65. A Summary of the Presentations is given in Appendix I.

APPENDIX I SUMMARY OF PRESENTATIONS

1. The UK industry survey revealed that: • University courses need to provide more experience in applying theoretical understanding to real industrial problems. • They need to recognise the changing requirements of industry, to attract and maintain the motivation of students. • Practical application, theoretical understanding, and creativity and innovation are seen as the top priorities for future graduate skills. 2. Engineering Education needs to be re-engineered taking into account the emerging trends in the inputs, the output requirements, the environment or ambience, and the strategic goals. • The new millennium paradigm for Engineering Education is emerging as a multi-disciplinary, multi-mode, multi-media, and multiple - partner enterprise. 3. Some of the major challenges facing Engineering Education for the XXI century are: • Broad-based UG programs for easy mobility • Flexibility to adapt to new and changing technologies • Dynamic curriculum 4. China has made huge investments in Engineering Education. • It has a large engineering workforce • Some of the challenges facing engineering technology in China are: o High energy consumption in production o Inadequate investments in R&D o High dependence on imported technology o Lack of innovative products • Some of the emerging trends in engineering education in China are: o Turning theory into practice o Promoting inter and cross-disciplinary research o Intensifying research-based education. o Emphasis on continuing lifelong education, and o Internationalisation 5. The recent economic development in India has its roots in the large and rapid expansion of higher technical education, combined with widespread non-formal xiii

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education in the area of IT, and the consequent large-scale employment in the ITeS and BPO segments. • On the negative side, the quality of Engineering Education has suffered grievously on account of a severe shortage of faculty as well as Ph.Ds • Research is non-existent in most of the Engineering Colleges. 6. Europe is a relatively small and densely populated continent with rather limited natural resources. • It is therefore necessary, in order to maintain global competitiveness, to exploit the only resource that increases while we use it; viz., education and creativity of its people. • The Bologna Treaties have opened up opportunities for students to study in different universities and different countries, thus providing them international work experience, as well as necessary language skills and cultures. • Eurocase and acatech have come to the common conclusion that they have to seize the chance of change. 7. Industry perspectives for Technical Education in India include the following: • Engineering Curricula should include considerations of cost, productivity, quality, safety, problem-solving, management, etc. • Increase in number of postgraduates employed in industry. • Practical research in tune with industry requirements. • Association with standardization and codes of practice. • Up gradation in skills of unemployed and under-employed engineers to make them useful. 8. It is necessary to study the implications of GATS, as well as the challenges and opportunities, in order to define our response and policies. 9. Significant reforms and dramatic changes are taking place in Chinese higher education, in order to adjust to the transition from planned economy to market economy. 10. TEL (Technology-Enhanced Learning), which exploits the developments in ICT over the past few decades, appears to be the only way to enhance the quality, and increase the reach of engineering education in India. • The NPTEL project was proposed by the 7 IITs and IISc, and funded by MHRD since 2003.

xv •

•

The goal of NPTEL is to develop web- and video-based learning resources for UG Science and Engineering courses, in order to enhance the reach and quality of Technical Education In the country. It is intended to launch a Virtual University in the near future.

11. The role of higher technical education is assuming an increasing role and significance in the emerging Knowledge Economy. • Meaningful collaborations with international institutions involve: study abroad programs, academic exchanges, internships abroad, university partnerships, re-modelled curricula including foreign languages and cultures. 12. Two of the approaches through which Engineering Education can be reoriented to meet the emerging challenges are: • Consortium research; and • Creating new academic courses. Case studies were presented to demonstrate the benefits to industry through consortium research. 13. Technical Education in India covers degree and diploma-level education in broad disciplines of Engineering, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture, Computer Applications, Hotel Management and Catering Technology, and Applied Arts and Crafts. • Key issues relate to quantitative and qualitative growth, with access and equity. 14. The lack of sufficient numbers of engineers trained in South Africa is a potential limiting factor in the technological development of the country. • Increasing the number of engineering graduates is, however, not a simple matter, given the history of the country, and the poor base in science and mathematics teaching at school level. • The University of Pretoria has put in place initiatives to overcome these problems. 15. Inevitable globalisation, IP and knowledge-based economics, digital world, and demand for core specialists to network with multi-disciplinary groups, have resulted in paradigm shifts in methodologies for effective human resource and knowledge management. • The strategies evolved need to be based on country-specific industrial focus, societal needs, and employment potential.

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16. The problem of combining equity with excellence is essentially concerned with effecting a modification of our admission system. • The JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) has been distorted by excessive coaching, which imposes a penalty on poor students. • A radical strategy is proposed for overcoming this problem. 17. Engineering supports the sustainable development of Society. • Prevention of injury, accidents and disasters caused by technology, as well as prevention of destruction of a social order by technology, are important social subjects for "technology-oriented global society" in the XXI century. • Key issues in this regard include: Engineering Ethics, Cultural analysis of Code of Engineering Ethics, international collaboration for solving problems for our sustainable future, etc. • "Autonomy" is the basis of the US model of Code of Ethics, while "harmony" is the basis for the Japanese model. 18. Unwise and unethical application of S&T can lead to several adverse impacts. • Engineering Education, in addition to imparting technical knowledge and skills, must educate engineers on their ethical responsibilities. • Professional societies across the world should endeavour to develop an internationally accepted code of ethics for engineers, for incorporating in the Engineering Curricula. 19. Engineering Education at Murdoch University has several non-traditional programs, such as: • Process Control • Renewable Energy; and • Power Engineering • Murdoch University offers a number of double degrees, and joint degrees with Science. • It has a number of interesting articulation arrangements with overseas as well as other Australian institutions. 20. Accreditation of Canadian undergraduate engineering programmes is driven by the associations regulating the professions. • There is an ongoing debate to achieve reciprocity and facilitate globalization of engineering. • The demand for higher level of professional skills from engineering graduates ensuring the ever-increasing technical component.

CONTENTS Preface

v

Advisory Committee

vii

Organising Committee and Event Sponsors

ix

Conference Report

Xl

Full Papers

1

Educating Engineers for the 21 st Century Prof Julia EKing

3

Re-Engineering Engineering Education for the Twenty-First Century Prof R Natarajan

29

Engineering Education and Engineers for the 21 st Century Prof P Dayaratnam

38

Prospects on the Development of European and German University Education - Seizing the Chance of Change Prof Dr. Reiner Kopp

45

Globalization of Education Services in the Context of GATS Prof D V Singh

53

Innovation of Higher Education in Architecture Engineering Prof Xu Delong

60

The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning Prof M S Ananth

71

Globalization and Higher Technical Education Prof Ashok Misra

78

Technical Education System in India - Challenges and Prospects Dr. Damodar Acharya

83

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Human Resource and Knowledge Management for Mission-Oriented High Technology Achievements - Changing Paradigms and Emerging Directions in Indian Context Dr. Baldev Raj

91

Issues on Engineering Ethics and Education - A Cultural Perspective Prof Haruki Ueno

106

Globalization of Engineers Ethics and Code of Conduct Dr. C G Krishnadas Nair

125

A Perspective of Engineering Education in Canada Prof Ravi (C) Ravindran

136

Abstracts

141

Cultivation of Innovative Engineering Talents in China Dr. Pan Yunhe

143

The Status of India's Higher Technical Education: What is the Way Forward? Prof P Rama Rao

145

Industry Perspective for Technical Education in India Dr. A Ramakrishna

147

Consortium Research and its Influence on Engineering Education Mr. M M Murugappan

149

A South African Perspective on Engineering Education Imperatives Prof R F Sandenbergh

150

Combining Equity with Excellence Prof P V Indiresan

151

Engineering Education at Murdoch University and Overseas Prof Yianni Attikiouzel

152

Acronyms

153

Author Index

155

Full Papers

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EDUCA TING ENGINEERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY PROFESSOR JULIA EKING The Royal Academy of Engineering 29 Great Peter Street, London, SWIP 3LW Tel: 020 72270500 Fax: 020 7233 0054 www.raeng.org.uk Registered Charity Number: 293074

1. Introduction

Amongst the greatest challenges we face in the world today are those of delivering growing, secure and affordable supplies of clean water and of energy, to meet the needs and expectations of an expanding population, whilst reducing our C02 emissions and the human contribution to climate change. The implementation of innovative engineering solutions is fundamental to addressing these challenges, whilst also offering exceptional opportunities for economic growth to the nations which are able to deliver them. Yet at this time when our need for engineering talent is huge, and when our young people are increasingly interested in how they can help to save the planet, we are failing to persuade them that engineering careers are exciting, well-paid and worthwhile. The report concludes that we will face an increasing shortage of graduate engineers in the UK unless action is taken. The main focus of the working party's review has been the quality and relevance of engineering undergraduate education in the UK. In particular, its fitness for purpose in this age of the 'Knowledge Economy', now that developed countries must rely increasingly on intellectual capital for their competitiveness. Encouragingly, industry and academia are in close agreement on the key issues and what needs to be done. The university respondents would welcome closer collaboration with companies to ensure that our graduates can apply their knowledge effectively in real engineering situations and the opportunity to develop and implement new courses and approaches. It is essential that we provide the right conditions in university engineering departments for such university/industry partnerships, as well as new approaches to learning and teaching, to flourish. I would like to thank the members of the working party: 3

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Professor Graham J Davies FREng: Head of School of Engineering, University of Birmingham Professor Peter J Goodhew FREng: Engineering Department, Liverpool University Professor Geoff E Kirk RDI, FREng: formerly Chief Design Engineer [Civil Aerospace] - Rolls-Royce pic Professor David A Nethercot OBE FREng: Head of Department, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London Mr Hugh Norie OBE FREng: Project Director DFT Channel Tunnel Rail Link Professor John F Roulston OBE FREng FRSE: CEO Scimus Solutions Dr Julia C Shelton: Reader in Medical Engineering, Queen Mary, University of London Professor Michael J Withers FREng: RAEng, Visiting Professor in Principles of Engineering Design Loughborough University for their thoughtful, constructive and challenging inputs to this work. The working party would not have been able to undertake the study without the excellent support of The Royal Academy of Engineering team: Dr Robert W Ditchfield: Director, Education Affairs EurIng Ian J Bowbrick: Manager, Postgraduate and Professional Development David M Foxley: Manager, Engineering Design Education Many other people have made valuable contributions. These include the staff of companies listed in Appendix 3 who answered our questions and returned the questionnaire, senior academics from the universities listed in Appendix 5 who responded to the consultation, participants in the meeting at the Royal Society of Arts, held to launch the results of the Industry Study and the Academy's Visiting Professors of Design, who, at their annual conference in September 2006 provided excellent, action-oriented inputs. The working party members would like to thank all of those who have been involved. Professor Julia EKing CBE FREng Vice Chancellor Aston University Chair of the Educating Engineers for the 21 st Century Working Party June 2007

2. Overview No factor is more critical in underpinning the continuing health and vitality of any national economy than a strong supply of graduate engineers equipped with the understanding, attitudes and abilities necessary to apply their skills in business and other environments. Today, business environments increasingly require engineers who can design and deliver to customers not merely isolated products but complete

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solutions involving complex integrated systems. Increasingly they also demand the ability to work in globally dispersed teams across different time zones and cultures. The traditional disciplinary boundaries inherited from the 19th century are now being transgressed by new industries and disciplines, such as medical engineering and nanotechnology, which also involve the application of more recent engineering developments, most obviously the information and communication technologies. Meanwhile new products and services that would be impossible without the knowledge and skills of engineers - for instance the internet and mobile telephones - have become pervasive in our everyday life, especially for young people. Engineering businesses now seek engineers with abilities and attributes in two broad areas - technical understanding and enabling skills. The first of these comprises: a sound knowledge of disciplinary fundamentals; a strong grasp of mathematics; creativity and innovation; together with the ability to apply theory in practice. The second is the set of abilities that enable engineers to work effectively in a business environment: communication skills; team-working skills; and business awareness of the implications of engineering decisions and investments. It is this combination of understanding and skills that underpins the role that engineers now play in the business world, a role with three distinct, if interrelated, elements: that of the technical specialist imbued with expert knowledge; that of the integrator able to operate across boundaries in complex environments; and that of the change agent providing the creativity, innovation and leadership necessary to meet new challenges. Engineering today is characterised by both a rapidly increasing diversity of the demands made on engineers in their professional lives and the ubiquity of the products and services they provide. Yet there is a growing concern that in the UK the education system responsible for producing new generations of engineers is failing to keep pace with the inherent dynamism of this situation and indeed with the increasing need for engineers. In the secondary schools, where students make decisions about the university courses they will pursue, there is an acknowledged shortage of teachers in maths and physics, the essential precursors of undergraduate engineering studies. In the universities the structure and content of engineering courses has changed relatively little over the past 20 years, indeed much of the teaching would still be familiar to the parents of today's new students. Right now in the UK even the basic output of engineers is effectively stagnating. Between 1994-2004 the number of students embarking on

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engineering degrees in UK universities remained static at 24,500 each year even though total university admissions rose by 40% over the same period. Further, after completing their studies less than half of UK engineering graduates subsequently choose to enter the profession [1]. International developments make the implications of this situation even more disquieting. Mature economies, such as that of the UK, must now compete with those of rapidly developing countries such as the BRIC nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China. On current projections the combined GDPs of the BRIC nations are set to overhaul those of the G6 countries (US, UK, Germany, Japan, France and Italy) by the year 2040 [2]. Furthermore the BRIC nations are producing record numbers of graduate engineers. In China and India alone, the most conservative estimates suggest that around half a million engineers now graduate each year [3]. BRles haw a '.,gIH USIGOP thantheGG in I&s.s than 4(li years. loo,OO)~-------------------------------,

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Consequently countries like the UK face the double challenge: producing increased numbers of a new type of engineer. The long term implications of a failure to confront this situation are self-evident. Ultimately the UK could slide into insignificance as an internationally competitive industrial nation. Action is needed to counter and reverse these trends. But such action must be based on reliable, in-depth information on several key issues. These include: the current state of undergraduate engineering education in terms of its quality,

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content and funding needs; future industry requirements; accreditation procedures; and the extent to which the school system is ensuring a healthy 'pipeline' of engineering undergraduates. For these reasons The Royal Academy of Engineering set up a working group specifically to address the issue of Educating Engineers for the 21st Century, chaired by Professor Julia King. The group commissioned extensive research within both UK industry and the universities; altogether over 400 companies and nearly 80 university engineering departments have been involved. The membership of the Educating Engineering for the 21st Century Working Group is listed in the Chair's Foreword on page 3; the terms of reference appear in Appendix 1. This report is a summary of the findings of that research and the resulting actions proposed by The Royal Academy of Engineering. The major findings of the research are that: othe best of UK graduate engineers are still world class and industry is generally satisfied with their overall quality, but there are simply not enough of them; oengineering courses at UK universities are now seriously under-funded; othe funding and ranking-driven focus on research in many universities is constraining the development of innovative learning and teaching in engineering; ouniversities and industry need to find more effective ways of ensuring that course content reflects the real requirements of industry and enabling students to gain practical experience of industry as part of their education; othe 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; oreform of the engineering qualifications system at a European level must be focussed on the importance of output competences as the primary means of assessing educational achievement; omuch more must be done to ensure that school students perceive engineering as an exciting and rewarding profession that is worth pursuing; oforeign graduates of UK engineering degree courses should be allowed to work in the country for an extended period (more than one year) after completing their studies; ounless action is taken a shortage of high-calibre engineers entering industry will become increasingly apparent over the next ten years with serious repercussions for the productivity and creativity of UK businesses. Addressing this situation requires urgent initiatives on the part not just of industry and the universities, but also of Government, the engineering institutions, the ETB and The Royal Academy of Engineering itself. The objective must be a step change in the number of students entering engineering

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degree courses without any compromise to the quality of qualification they eventually receive. 3. Research Process This report has been produced on the basis of extensive consultation with industry, the universities and recent engineering graduates. It represents the most comprehensive recent survey of attitudes, expectations and experiences amongst the key customers, providers and recipients of engineering education in the UK.

4. The Industry Study The first step in the consultation process was an industry study carried out on behalf of the Academy by Henley Management College during 2005. The study began with 21 in-depth interviews with senior personnel in major companies in the manufacturing, energy and process sectors, civil engineering, IT and the utilities. It was followed by a further 13 interviews with SMEs, seven of which were high-tech spin-outs from UK university engineering departments. In addition three focus groups were conducted with recent engineering graduates. The companies involved are listed in Appendix 3. The information gained was used to formulate a detailed questionnaire that was distributed to over 8,000 further engineering companies. The questionnaire sought to obtain information in four main areas: • changes in the industry; • current and future skills requirements; • the comparative quality of UK and international engineering graduates; • consequential requirements for changes in engineering degree courses. Altogether 444 replies to the questionnaire were received, a response rate of 5.4%; more than double the usual rate for such exercises. Moreover 53% of the companies responding were SMEs. This response rate is strong evidence of the importance attached to the issue within industry. The Academy working party's Commentary and the full report on the industry responses are available for download from the Academy's website at www.raeng.org.uklhenleyreport The research indicated that industry expects that the supply of high calibre engineering graduates will steadily diminish over the next ten years with serious and direct repercussions for productivity, creativity and hence profitability. Current shortages of graduate recruits in Civil, Electrical, Electronic Engineering and Systems Engineering were all highlighted. Companies identified Information

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and Communications Technology and Materials as key areas for increased graduate recruitment to support future growth. Companies are concerned about the type of graduate engineer they want to recruit, as well as their quantity. Although industry is generally satisfied with the current quality of graduate engineers it regards the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to real industrial problems as the single most desirable attribute in new recruits. But this ability has become rarer in recent years - a factor which is seen as impacting on business growth. In descending order of importance other relevant attributes for graduate engineering recruits identified by industry include theoretical understanding, creativity and innovation, team working, technical breadth and business skills.

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The prominence of creativity and innovation endorses the conclusion of the Cox Review on the importance of creative skills in improving the UK's competitiveness in the face of the challenge from emerging economies [5]. Although business skills come last in the ranking of industry requirements, industry is nevertheless quite specific about the nature of such skills it wants graduate engineers to possess. These are general commercial awareness defined as an understanding of how businesses work and the importance of the customer - combined with a basic understanding of project management. Significantly the research found little difference between the requirements for graduate engineering skills of major companies and SMEs. The only difference of note is that SMEs have a distinct preference for graduates with some experience of the commercial world, whereas major companies with their own graduate training schemes tend to recruit directly from universities. Less

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than half the SMEs that responded to the survey operate graduate training schemes of their own, whereas almost 90% of the large companies reported having such schemes in place. Measures to support the introduction of structured graduate training schemes within the SME sector could, therefore, prove of great value. This is an area in which public sector bodies such as the RDAs or professional bodies such as the engineering institutions could become involved. It is also an area in which larger companies could usefully provide support to the SME community, possibly as part of their supply chain development policies. Real industrial experience, however, remains a primary factor in the recruitment policies of the great majority of companies and is highly influential in determining the selection of job applicants for interview. The need to ensure that students gain practical experience of real industrial environments during their studies is therefore extremely important. This perception is shared by students themselves, since the graduate focus groups expressed concern about limited and unrealistic project work they had experienced during their degree courses. The resulting report on industry's views, together with the Academy's Commentary, was formally launched at a Symposium held in London on 30 March 2006 by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Science and Innovation. The Symposium reviewed the international context, with particular reference to The Engineer of 2020 study of the US National Academy of Engineering, as well as subjecting UK industrial requirements to further analysis [6].

5. The University Consultation A second questionnaire was then distributed to all university engineering departments with the aim of establishing the extent of university agreement with industry and the actions that were already underway within the universities to develop the engineering curriculum. Altogether 81 responses were received, which showed no significant variation in views between Russell Group, other 'pre-92' and 'post-92' universities. Appendix 5 lists the universities involved. Amongst the most important findings of this academic survey were the close correlation between the views of industry and the universities on the major issues concerning undergraduate engineering education and the confirmation it provided of the enthusiasm of the universities for closer collaborative links with industry. University engineering departments, for instance, overwhelmingly concurred with the view that their courses need to provide more experience in the

11 application of theoretical understanding to real applications of the type graduates would encounter once they enter industry. The primary means of satisfying this objective is through problem-based learning approaches combined with design/make activities and other types of individual and group project work in which students can see the opportunities and the necessity for innovation. Where they can be incorporated, course placements and projects in industry are also a major benefit. But in tum such work makes a number of demands of its own including familiarity of academic staff with real industry problems through close relationships between academic departments and companies at the teaching level, provision of challenging case study material from industry and the availability of adequate laboratory facilities within the universities themselves. These requirements emphasise the issue of funding, which is currently a cause of great concern within the university engineering community. Engineering courses used to be funded by HEFCE at a rate of twice the basic unit of resource, but over the period 2003-04 this was ratio was reduced to just 1.7. However there is universally held view within universities that this allocation needs to be at least 2.5 and possibly as much as three times the basic unit if engineering courses are to meet future requirements for enhanced engagement with industry including more extensive design and project work. Further, the effectiveness of all aspects of the undergraduate engineering experience, not just project work, depends on the quality of the teaching. Whilst the quality of teaching is generally enhanced by staff involvement in research, so called 'research-led teaching', there is also a widespread view that the current funding regime, so strongly driven by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), has inhibited the development of innovative teaching practice. Staff time must be allocated between research, teaching and administrative duties but there is strong perception of inadequate incentives and rewards for teaching compared with research. Despite the fact that most universities have a formal commitment to recognising teaching expertise in their appointment and promotion processes, many of those involved feel that research activities and even administrative expertise are given undue weight. UK universities are also anxious about the moves currently taking place at a European level to achieve 'Bologna compliance', effectively the harmonisation of the required standards for engineering degree courses, but primarily through an approach based course length. Specifically they want to ensure that the current UK four-year MEng degree course structure is recognised as fulfilling all the relevant requirements through its delivery of a compact syllabus in an integrated manner and that there is no need to adopt the five-year format used elsewhere in Europe. A major fear is that failure to defend the integrity of the existing UK

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degree structure might devalue UK degrees in the eyes of potential overseas students, whereas increasing the length of degrees to 5 years could discourage UK students from studying engineering. Nevertheless the overall picture also contained some positive elements. Nearly three fifths of the academic respondents, for instance, were implementing elements of the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) approach to learning and teaching which puts an emphasis on articulating and solving problems as a lead in to developing the important but more abstract analytical skills, a highly appropriate approach for engineers [7]. Around three quarters also expressed support for the introduction of new types of engineering course, such as biotechnology or nanotechnology. In addition just over half reported they had had contact with at least one or other of the HEFCE-funded Engineering Subject Centre (engSC) or the UK Centre for Materials Education. Overwhelming enthusiasm was expressed for greater industrial involvement in the education process, something already implemented through initiatives such as the Academy's Visiting Professors scheme. One useful way in which greater involvement could be effected would be through increased participation by practising engineers in the accreditation process for degree courses, a measure that would help ensure that course content is developed in sympathy with the real requirements of industry. This would be particularly valuable in the case of newer courses, such as Systems Engineering or Bioengineering, of a multidisciplinary nature that do not obviously fall under the remit of a single engineering institution. The information gathered from these studies subsequently informed much of the discussion at the conference of the Academy's Visiting Professors schemes in Engineering Design, Sustainable Development and Integrated Systems Design held at Churchill College, Cambridge, on 12-13 September 2006. The conference provided confirmation that the schemes are widely acknowledged as popular and successful in helping universities develop in students the 'applied competences' they will increasingly require as practising engineers. The conference also explored the role that the schemes could play in the future education of engineering students. There was a broad consensus that the Academy's schemes could be further developed to the benefit of engineering education with actions including the accelerated introduction of the planned Visiting Professors in Innovation and the inception of a Visiting Lecturers initiative to support the involvement of less senior engineers from industry in university learning and teaching activities.

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6. Key Messages The research on which this report is based identified a marked degree of consensus amongst both industrial and academic respondents about the current situation in the universities, industry requirements and necessary actions. The Academy Working Group has used the industry and academic inputs to formulate the following nine Key Messages.

6.1. Over the next ten years the UK is facing an increasing shortage of high calibre engineering graduates entering industry, just at the time we need a growing number if businesses are to remain competitive and the UK is to attract high technology inward investment. oBusiness and the professional institutions must do more to ensure that UK students recognise the attractiveness and rewards of an Engineering career. oOverseas students choosing to study engineering in the UK bring significant benefits. They are often students of high calibre, with a stronger mathematical training than their UK peers, who add important international elements to the educational experience. In many universities overseas students are essential in maintaining the viability of engineering courses. It is critical that we continue to attract such students to the UK, by both ensuring that our engineering courses maintain a high reputation and by allowing them to work in the UK on graduating. oAllowing overseas engineering students to remain for at least five years after graduation would: (i) encourage students from rapidly developing countries to choose to study engineering in the UK universities as they will be able to work in the UK for long enough after graduation to repay their loans, and (ii) provide UK-based companies with a larger pool of world-class engineering talent to draw on. The current situation where overseas graduates can only remain in the UK for one year makes them less appealing recruits because this is not long enough to recover company investment in their training, and to make a significant contribution to company's (and the UK's) success. oIn the longer term we will require measures to stimulate greater numbers of school students to study maths and physics, to encourage them to become engineering undergraduates and finally to opt to apply their qualifications in industry.

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6.2. University engineering courses must provide students with the range of knowledge and innovative problem-solving skills to work effectively in industry as well as motivating students to become engineers on graduation. To do this courses must be adequately resourced - this implies significantly more funding per head than at present. -Engineering is an intrinsically expensive subject to teach well because of the demands it makes for small group work in design and build projects, specialist laboratory equipment and technician support. These elements of the learning experience are cited as critical by both recent graduates and employers in developing innovative, entrepreneurial graduates who can tackle open-ended problems -In the context of the current HEFCE funding formula this requires an increased level of support of the order of 2.5 to three times the basic unit of resource (compared to the current allocation of 1.7)

6.3. The best UK engineering graduates are world class and compare favourably with those of other countries in Europe and elsewhere. It is important that the MEng qualification is not undermined by the development of the proposed European Qualifications Framework under the terms of the Bologna agreement. -Industry welcomes the current diversity of paths to engineering degrees across Europe; this enables companies to recruit engineers with a wide range of skill sets. -Course assessment based on output competences, rather than student work-load, must be promoted as the basis for a European Qualifications Framework (to replace the European Credit Transfer System), as part of the Bologna process. It is essential that the Government take a proactive role in promoting this outputcompetence-based approach in all Bologna negotiations and agreements. -In the meantime engineering departments are encouraged to ensure that they comply with Universities UK guidelines (Europe Note E/05/12), in order to satisfy the requirements for Bologna convergence. -Within the UK it is desirable for there to be a single focal point for engineering to coordinate implementation of the Bologna qualification framework; the Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB) is well placed to take on this role.

6.4. Engineering courses must develop in line with the real and constantly evolving requirements of industry. Regulation and maintenance of standards should encourage and enable change rather than inhibit. -To ensure that UK engineering education is world-class, academic staff need the time and resources to implement new approaches to engineering learning and

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teaching, an example of which is the Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate (CDIO) framework. -There is a need to embed multidisciplinary approaches based on systems thinking, with strong industry links, within all engineering courses. -New courses which appeal to a wider range of students, and particularly women undergraduates, such as Bioengineering and Medical Engineering, should be encouraged. But engineering must avoid the 'forensic science' trap of training graduates in fashionable subjects for jobs which do not exist. We must ensure that all new courses retain a strong core engineering content, both in terms of depth and quality, such that graduates can be employed in a wide range of professional engineering roles.

6.5. The prestige of and resource for teaching in research-active engineering departments have been compromised by a disproportionate emphasis on the research output as a consequence of the Research Assessment Exercise. -Teaching must be seen as central to academic career prospects and be suitably rewarded through promotion and remuneration. There must be appropriate incentives for academic staff to develop new learning and teaching approaches and new types of course content. -Three actions will support this: (i) a proper level of funding for undergraduate engineering teaching; (ii) the development and adoption of quantitative, challenging promotion criteria for teaching to ensure that teaching achievements can be ranked equally alongside research in promotion criteria at all academic levels, and (iii) national and international engineering bodies should develop high profile awards to recognise engineering teaching.

6.6. Much more effective interaction between industry and university engineering departments is required. Support and engagement needs to operate at two levels: the provision by industry of strategic advice to help shape course development and operational engagement whereby students can experience real-life industrial engineering challenges. -Strategic advice on course development can be made through Industrial Advisory (or Steering) Committees as well as through the accreditation process -Operational engagement should give students exposure to realistic, open-ended problems, teaching them relevant skills and motivating them towards careers in industry. Such engagement can take the form of Visiting Professors from industry (in which the Academy schemes play an important role), provision of project topics and facilities, visits, work placements and recruitment. Developing these industry/university relationships is important, but also time-consuming for both the company and the academic staff. Long term industry/academic

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relationships at the teaching and recruitment level, such as are now working well for research, need to be developed. -Industry respondents ranked industrial experience during training as the most important factor in terms of the employability and contribution of graduate recruits. -This could be particularly significant for the development of SMEs. SMEs find it harder to take on work placement students because of the real or perceived diversionary impact. The diversionary costs for SMEs need to be supported, for example by 100% governmentJRDA funding or suitable tax incentives, along the lines of those awarded for R&D activity

6.7. Universities must continue to teach 'core engineering' and not dilute course content with peripheral subject matter. - Industry's top priorities for engineering graduate skills are practical application, theoretical understanding, creativity and innovation. -Whilst broader technological understanding is also important it should not be at the expense of understanding the fundamentals. It is important that courses are not overloaded with technical content: the emphasis should be on the ability to understand and apply theory to real problems. -There is a limited requirement for training in key business skills, envisaged primarily as commercial awareness - an understanding of how businesses work and the importance of the customer - combined with the basic principles of project management.

6.8. The accreditation process for engineering degree courses should actively inform the development of course content to ensure that courses produce graduates that industry will want to employ. -The accreditation process should have a stronger emphasis on recommending ways in which courses should be developed rather than just being a formal audit of current course content. Accreditation boards may need to ensure that courses are being developed to be Bologna - compliant. -Accreditation panels should include current industry practitioners who can provide advice on how course content should be shaped to produce graduates with the knowledge, skills and aptitudes that industry genuinely requires. The Accreditation process offers one route for industry to comment on what will be needed for the future and thereby stimulate new thinking and course improvements.

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6.9. To fill the "pipeline", more must be done to ensure that school students, parents and teachers perceive engineering as an exciting and worthwhile subject that offers stimulating and well-paid careers. -Industry itself, and indeed government, must get involved in this process, especially in the critical task of ensuring that teachers and parents - by far the most crucial opinion formers for school students become convinced of the benefits of engineering as a career choice. Key messages are the value of engineering to society (energy, climate change, care of the elderly etc), the excitement of the technological challenges, and the good career prospects and salaries accessible through the study of engineering. -Current initiatives to encourage school students to study mathematics and the physical sciences and to increase the number of science teachers are strongly welcomed. -Similar encouragement should also be given for universities and companies to collaborate with other interested parties along the lines laid out in the Teaching Engineering in Schools Strategy (TESS) as envisaged in the National Engineering Programme (NEP).

7. Recommendations Reshaping undergraduate engineering education in the UK to meet the demands of the 21st century will require input from the Government, the engineering profession, industry and academia. The major recommended actions are as follows:

7.1. To Government -To increase university funding to cover the true cost of providing world-class teaching in engineering from the present factor of 1.7 to at least 2.5, and optimally three, times the basic unit of resource. -To place teaching quality alongside research excellence in the assessment of the funding requirements for universities -To enable overseas engineering students to work in the UK for a period of 5 years after graduation, enabling them to contribute to a high technology-based economy in the UK, and to payoff their loans -To ensure that the Bologna process is managed so that UK degrees are preserved in their current form through the replacement of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) by an output competences approach in the new European Qualifications Framework. -To increase the funding for engineering education initiatives which strengthen industry links such as the Visiting Professor schemes, and to enable the introduction of new schemes.

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oTo provide further funding to the Engineering Subject Centre (engSC) to enable it to expand and support the development and dissemination of best practice in engineering education. oTo support sandwich-type placements in both small and large companies either through RDA funding or through tax incentives, akin to those recommended in the Cox Review, to provide greater incentives for creativity and design. oTo continue to implement the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Programme Report [8]. oTo continue the programme of support for the training of more maths and physics teachers. oTo ensure that, in Government papers and announcements on major policy and societal issues, the opportunity is taken to highlight the important role of engineering in providing solutions - for example in energy, transport and care of the elderly.

7.2. To the Engineering Institutions oTo help raise the profile and status of university teaching in engineering, for example through high profile awards for excellence and innovation in engineering teaching and learning. oTo make the accreditation process a strategic tool for ensuring continued relevance of courses to the real needs of the economy. The accreditation process should encourage course development and innovation, taking greater account of the professional competencies and fitness for purpose of the graduates whilst being less prescriptive on specialist technical content. oTo establish processes which support the creation, development and accreditation of multidisciplinary degrees. oTo engage actively with the Government's STEM programme. oTo be proactive in strengthening the university/industry interface through cooperation, liaison and promotion of activities, such as Formula Student.

7.3. To Industry oTo establish active, long-term relationships with university engineering departments in the area of education (as many companies have now done in research), including membership of Advisory Boards, providing Visiting Professors and Industrial Tutors, offering project topics and facilities and student placements. Companies should also recognise the secondary benefit from such engagement, for example in the development of younger staff. oTo engage actively with the Government's STEM programme. oTo work with the Institutions in degree accreditation, in particular releasing active members of staff to serve on the Accreditation Boards and Panels.

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7.4. To the Academy -To enlarge and expand the Visiting Professors Schemes in Engineering Design to disseminate current industrial best practice, to address the Innovation and Creativity agenda, and to embed integrated systems design principles into all degree courses. -To work with companies and universities to develop new links and opportunities for exchange of personnel, eg by the introduction of a Visiting Lecturer scheme and secondments for academics to spend time with companies developing new teaching materials. -To continue to take the lead, through TESS, Shape the Future and the Best programme, in coordinating activity to 'fill the pipeline'. -To make greater use of the younger people in the Best Programme and other Academy schemes to provide feedback to university departments.

7.5. To University Engineering Departments -To recognise the importance of excellent and innovative course design and delivery through promotion criteria and reward. -To strengthen links with industry in education and teaching. -To improve understanding in academia of the skills and competences of engineering graduates required by industry, to ensure that courses produce graduates with a high level of relevant technical competence backed up by the ability to apply it. -To be proactive in developing world-class degree courses for the 21st Century, including courses which are attractive to underrepresented groups such as women. -To continue to engage actively in STEM initiatives in schools by a proper allocation of the unit funding for widening participation.

7.6. To the Engineering Technology Board (etb) -To intensify its role in informing students and their parents of the excitement and importance of engineering and the excellent career prospects of engineering graduates.

7.7. To the Engineering Subject Centres -To expand their role in developing and disseminating best practice in engineering education and in promoting and rewarding innovative teaching. - To develop specialist promotion criteria for engineering learning and teaching which enable such contributions to be compared with quantitative research criteria, such as research income and publications, in academic promotion processes.

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8. References 1. Engineering UK 2005, etb Research Report, November 2005. 2. Goldman Sachs Global Economics Paper No 99 Dreaming with the BRICS: The Path to 2050, October 2003. 3. Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate: Placing the United States on a Level Playing Field with India and China, Duke University Master of Engineering Program Paper, December 2005. 4. Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the global economy-world class skills, HMSO, December 2006 5. Cox Review of Creativity in Business: Building on the UK's Strengths, HMSO, November 2005. 6. The Engineer of 2020, National Academy of Engineering, Washington DC, 2004. 7. See www.cdio.org 8. The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Programme Report, DtES, October 2006. 9. Science and innovation investment framework 2004-2014, HMSO, July 2004

9. Appendix 1 Educating Engineers for the 21st Century Terms of Reference • To draft an Academy policy statement on the changes required in the engineering education curriculum for the formation of the professional engineers required in the 21st Century. • To take account of the following aspects in the study: The need to ensure that the UK can strengthen its position as a centre for world class high value added engineering. The Business and Industry Requirements with particular reference to the requirements and preferences of International Business following the Bologna Declaration. The nature and length of engineering degree courses with particular reference to the impact of the Bologna Declaration and the changes occurring in pre-university education. The process of Regulation and Accreditation. The most effective ways to recruit high caliber students. Overseas developments and best practice. • To complete and present the study to The Standing Committee for Education and Training.

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10. Appendix 2 Educating Engineers for the 21st Century: The Industry View

Conclusions from the Industry Study The Academy's Working Party and Fellows on the Standing Committee for Education and Training have identified the following major conclusions from the study of industry views.

10.1. Over the next ten years there will be a worsening shortage of high calibre UK engineering graduates going into industry. This shortage will impact the productivity and creativity of UK-based businesses unless it can be addressed. In several areas, companies in the survey report difficulties today in recruiting graduate engineers. Many comment that it is difficult to get 'enough of the best'. But they expect graduate engineers to make up an increasing proportion of the workforce over the next ten years. The latter point is encouraging in the light of the aim, stated in the White Paper on Innovation [9], to raise UK R&D spending from 1.9% to 2.5% of GDP by 2014. Nevertheless companies are concerned about the 'pipeline' of suitably motivated and qualified young people in schools equipped to progress to engineering degrees.

10.2. Shortages of suitable engineering graduates and skill gaps are impacting the performance of UK businesses. Over one-third of companies responding indicate that shortages and skill deficiencies are impeding new product development and business growth, as well as increasing recruitment costs. Specific gaps exist in problem solving and application of theory to real problems ,breadth and ability in maths.

10.3. University courses need to provide more experience in applying theoretical understanding to real problems. Whilst industry is generally satisfied with the engineers it recruits, there are concerns about the ability of graduates to apply their knowledge to real industrial problems. This has become more acute in recent years and is identified as one of the skill shortages impacting business growth. The graduate focus groups also expressed concern about limited and 'unrealistic' project work in their degree courses. Project work was nevertheless

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identified as the most important element of their education in terms of their subsequent experience in industry. Over the past ten years the unit of resource for teaching an engineering undergraduate has fallen by a factor of two to three. This has led to a reduction in expensive practical and project work and an increased reliance on computerbased models in place of real experiments. At the same time academic staff members have been focussed on increasing their research outputs to improve performance in the Research Assessment Exercise, leaving teaching as a 'poor relation' in terms of competition for staff time and commitment in our leading uni versities.

10.4. The quality of the best UK graduates is as good as their peers in Europe, despite our shorter degree courses. Companies expressed concern over the additional costs/debts associated with the four year MEng, compared with a BEng. There was no evidence of a strong desire to move to five years in line with other parts of Europe. It is important that we achieve 'Bologna compliance' within the four-year MEng structure for UK engineering degrees to ensure that both our students and courses remain highly marketable in other parts of Europe. UK universities will need government support to ensure that further negotiations allow for this outcome, while HEFCE will need to recognise the additional cost of new elements which may be required to achieve compliance.

10.5. UK engineering degree courses must: recognise the changing requirements of industry; attract and maintain motivation of students; ensure UK degrees continue to be recognised in Europe. In terms of priorities for future graduate skills, respondents present a very consistent picture. Practical application, theoretical understanding and creativity and innovation are seen as the top priorities. Whilst broader technological understanding is also important, it should not come at the expense of understanding the fundamentals. Key business skills are envisaged primarily as commercial awareness or sensitivity - an understanding of how businesses work and the importance of the customer - combined with a basic understanding of project management. The perspective of the graduates in the focus groups mirrored the business respondents and emphasised what motivates students to study engineering: a good all round degree course offering a wide range of career options, a strong

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sense of wanting to make a difference, contributing to society and being able to see the results of their creativity. Closer collaboration between industry and universities in the area of undergraduate education is a key requirement going forward.

10.6. Industrial experience is a major factor in recruitment of new graduates. A large majority of companies report using industrial experience, whether before or during university as an important discriminator in selecting job applicants for interview.

10.7. Large companies and SMEs have very similar requirements for graduate education and skills. Few differences emerged between the needs of large and small to medium-sized companies in the survey, in which half of the respondents employed less than 500 personnel. But one that can be identified is that SMEs prefer graduates with some experience of the commercial world before recruitment, whereas large companies recruit directly from universities and have their own graduate training schemes.

10.8. Structured graduate training schemes are needed to support SMEs Whilst almost 90% of companies with over 500 employees report having graduate training schemes in place, more than half of the SME respondents do not. This provides an opportunity for organisations such as the sector skills councils, professional institutions and RDAs to become involved and for large companies to work with SMEs in their supply chains to offer provision for graduate training and mentoring. 11. Appendix 3 Companies involved in the Industry Study The following companies were interviewed for this study: • ABB • Grimley Smith Associates • Arup • IBM • Lightweight Medical Limited • Atkins • National Grid Transco • BOC Edwards • Nortel Renishaw pic • BP pic • BT Group (2 interviews) • Roll-Royce pic • Cadogan Consultants • SheIl UK

24 • Cold Drawn Products • Siemens UK • Smiths Group pic • Cultech Limited • Technical Support Associates • DSTL • Thales UK pic • Filtronic pic • Thames Water • Ford Motor Company Ltd • Foster Wheeler Energy In addition seven interviews were conducted with key informants involved in spin-outs that had emerged from four UK universities: Brunei, Cambridge, Imperial College and Oxford. The names of the companies have not been included for reasons of commercial confidentiality. A further 444 companies responded to the industry questionnaire.

12. Appendix 4 Educating Engineers for the 21st Century Analysis of Responses to the University Questionnaire

12.1. Over the next ten years there will be a worsening shortage of high calibre UK engineering graduates going into industry. The majority (87%) agreed with this. While some universities (27%) aspire to increase both quality and quantity within the current funding environment the majority (68%) are aiming to maintain the same numbers and entry standards. It is anticipated that the number of graduates entering industry will remain at current levels.

12.2. There is a need for more inspiring engineering degree courses. The majority (80%) are in agreement that this is a key aspiration. It is generally considered that all universities should continually strive to improve their courses in terms of technical content, pedagogy, transferable skills, professional responsibility, management and project work as well as motivation and inspiration. Most believe that they are doing this within the constraints of the current accreditation process. However, there is a requirement for more degree programmes which cross nineteenth century institutional boundaries.

12.3. There is a need for engineering degree courses with closer industrial engagement. There is widespread agreement (89%) that industry should supply more feedback on the quality and education of graduates and provide high quality project and

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case study material. Academics see themselves as responsible for designing courses to suit a wide range of aspirations in professional engineering whilst taking into account both intrinsic educational value and the views of potential employers. It must be stressed that many courses already have a large industrial content.

12.4. University courses need to provide more experience in applying theoretical understanding to real applications and the open-ended problems faced by industry. There was again overwhelming agreement (91 %) from respondents. While noting the need to build on theoretical knowledge ('the basics'), the requirement for 'real applications' and 'open ended' project and practical work are also well recognised. Given additional resources the majority of respondents would use them to refurbish, better equip and expand practical and laboratory facilities. This would also mean engaging increased numbers of technical support staff and developing more industry based case studies.

12.5. The current stance on Bologna is that the quality of the best UK students is as good as their peers in Europe despite our shorter degrees. There was general agreement with this proposition, which was also endorsed by the industry survey. But it is difficult to make any direct comparison due to the lack of any formal benchmarking system.

12.6. It is important that 'Bologna compliance' is achieved within the fouryear MEng degree structure for UK Engineering. At departmental level there is surprisingly little activity in this area, though 52% claim to be doing something amongst whom most are 'awaiting advice from the university and/or the Engineering (degree) Accreditation Boards'. Very few (25%) are finding the Universities UK advice (Europe Note E/05/12) useful or easy to follow. More significantly it is clear that few intend to take any positive action to conform to the Bologna process until they receive specific directions from either their university (through QAA, UUK or HEFCE) or from the engineering institutions licensed by EC'" to accredit engineering degrees. Currently all Engineering degrees are accredited in accordance with UKSPEC and the EC"'IQAA Engineering Degree Benchmark Statements in order to gain professional recognition. It is, therefore, a matter of paramount importance to issue detailed advice on how to present these requirements in such away as to be

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'Bologna compliant'. Currently no UK body has been specifically tasked, or made accountable, for ensuring that this is done.

12.7. Are BEng degree courses being structured to comply with the first cycle requirements? Again most consider themselves already compliant but the formalities have yet to be completed.

12.8. Are degree standards being structured to comply with the EC"/QAA Engineering Benchmark Statements? The great majority of respondents (86%) have actively complied with this as it is now required by the Accreditation Boards. All relevant degree courses are accredited by the appropriate Engineering Accreditation Boards.

12.9. The Report identifies a hierarchy of Skills and Attributes (in decreasing order): Practical Application; Theoretical Understanding; Creativity and Innovation; Teamworking; Technical Breadth and Business. There is general agreement about the required skills and attributes, but not about the ranking. While a clear majority (68%) agreed without demur, the remainder (particularly in the Russell Group) consider that theoretical understanding is paramount. It is generally considered that the course content specified in UK-SPEC is well aligned with these recommendations. Most respondents also point out that their courses and curriculum are constantly evolving.

12.10. The Report confirms the future requirement for Technical Specialists, but also identifies future demand for Multidisciplinary Systems Engineers who willfulfill the role of Integrators. This elucidated a mixed response due for the most part to different perceptions of 'systems engineering'. But there is widespread agreement on the need to develop engineering graduates with the multidisciplinary approach required for successful systems integration. Universities teaching general engineering courses consider that they already achieving this, principally through embedding system theory and design in interdisciplinary project work. It is envisaged that the core curriculum could be modified to incorporate more of these activities to ensure that all students

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develop systems engineering skills, if necessary by displacing some in-depth technical content.

12.11. Given the importance of the engineer as change agent through creativity and innovation, how can these attributes be best developed in degree courses? There was a general consensus that creativity and innovation are best taught through design and project work (both individual and group) where students can see the opportunities and need for innovation. But it was stressed that this requires high quality facilities and case study materials.

12.12. Industrial experience is frequently cited as a major factor in the recruitment of new graduates. There was general agreement (81 %) with this statement and the majority of courses (76%) already include industrial placements. Most universities (77%) also encourage a gap year either before or during the course, though this is not mandatory. While universities offering sandwich courses commented on the high industry demand for their graduates there was little support (29%) for the view that more sandwich courses are required. It was also considered that making industrial placements a specific requirement of a degree programme would place unacceptable burdens and constraints on course administration. The majority (67%) would include more industrial experience if placements were easier to arrange. But this would require dedicated staff and a strong regional network.

12.13. Structured graduate training schemes are needed to support SMEs. Could the universities could expand their role to cover the initial professional development requirements? The universities already participate in a wide range of activities and schemes involving interaction with SMEs, such as student placements, projects and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP). Several universities have dedicated units which work in collaboration with industry and many already provide CPD courses for SMEs in their area. While a majority of universities (56%) are prepared to consider this role (if properly funded) it is considered that much of the experience required can only be gained in industry. As such the Regional Development Agencies could playa key role in supporting these activities where needed.

28 13. Appendix 5 Academic Respondents Responses were gratefully received from the following: Anglia Ruskin University Aston University Bath University Birmingham University Bournemouth University Bradford University Bristol University BruneI University Cambridge University Cardiff University Coventry University City University Cranfield University De Montfort University East London University Edinburgh University Exeter University Glamorgan University Glasgow University Heriot Watt University Huddersfield University Imperial College King's College London Lancaster University Leeds University Leicester University

Liverpool University London South Bank University Loughborough University Manchester University Manchester Metropolitan University Napier University Newcastle University Northumbria University Nottingham University Oxford University Queen Mary, University of London Queen's University, Belfast Reading University Sheffield University Sheffield Hallam University Southampton University Staffordshire University Strathclyde University Surrey University Ulster University University College London University of Wales, Bangor Institution of Civil Engineers Institution of Mechanical Engineers Institution of Structural Engineers New Engineering Foundation

RE-ENGINEERING ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR THE TWENTY -FIRST CENTURY PROFESSOR R. NATARAJAN

Former Chairman, AICTE Former Director, llT Madras Chairman, Engineering Education Forum, INAE ABSTRACT

So much has changed in the recent past that Engineering Education for the XXI century can not be an extrapolation of the past, but needs to be re-invented and redesigned. This should take into account the emerging trends in the nature and scope of the four essential sub-systems which have a major influence on the design and effectiveness of the overall Engineering Education system, viz., the inputs, the output requirements, the environment or ambience, and the strategic goals. Two of the hallmarks of the current and emerging global economy are innovation and entrepreneurship, which have largely been unexplored in the past. Even R&D has undergone major transformation in content and scope. The new millennium paradigm for Engineering Education must incorporate the integration of several features, which have till now existed in isolation. Engineering Education is emerging as a multidisciplinary, multi-mode, multi-media, and multiple-partner enterprise.

1. RAISON D'ETRE FOR RE-DESIGN OF THE XXI CENTURY ENGINEERING EDUCATION SYSTEM

The nature and scope of the practice of the engineering profession have undergone several dramatic changes, especially in the high-tech areas. Obsolescence has taken a heavy toll of earlier tools, techniques, technologies and work skills. Examples of obsoleted technologies include: vacuum tubes, belt-driven lathes, dial-type telephones, spool-type tape recorders, records and record players. Disruptive technologies have yielded substantial improvements; this applies both to products as well as processes. For example, digital photography as replacement for silver halide photographic film; mobile telephony for wireline telephony; hand-held digital appliances for notebook computers; internet-based sites such as chemdex and e-steel for industrial materials distributors; free greeting cards, downloadable over the internet for printed greeting cards; distance education, typically enabled by the internet, for classroom and campus-based instruction; anthroscopic and endoscopic surgery for open surgery; etc.

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These trends get translated into the competencies, knowledge, and skills requirements of graduates corning out of technical institutions. For example, drawing board and T -square should give place to computer-aided drafting, data acquisition should be automated and digitized, laboratory instruction should be closely related to industrial practice, and the content of the various courses should reflect the sum and substance of what industries are engaged in. Sadly, neither the faculty have industry awareness or exposure, nor do the industry professionals show commitment toward curriculum development and quality improvement. There seems to be universal agreement that the current system has many flaws which need to be removed. The emerging scenario places several new demands on the engineering graduates, which are largely not addressed by our technical institutions. Two of these demands are: knowledge, skills and attitudes that confer employability in the present, and a foundation that enables them to function effectively and productively in the future whose contours will be designed by them. 2. A COMPARISON OF THE XX AND THE XXI CENTURY CHARACTERISTICS

2.1 A Management Perspective Mathew Kiernan has brought out the major differences between the characteristics of the XX and XXI centuries which have a bearing on managing organizations: XX Century XXI Century • • • • • • • • •

Stability, Predictability Size and Scale Organizational Rigidity Control by Rules and Hierarchy Information closely guarded Need for Certainty Reactive; risk-averse Sustainable competitive advantage Competing for today's markets

Discontinuous Change Speed and Responsiveness Permanent Flexibility Control by Vision and Values Information shared Tolerance of Ambiguity Proactive; entrepreneurial Constant reinvention of advantage Creating tomorrow's markets

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2.2 A Knowledge Economy Perspective - Educational Requirements

xx Century • • • • • • • • •

Skills Formallearning Passive participation Just-in-case Static content Mandated Instructor-led courses Educational Technology Teaching

XXI Century Knowledge Lifelong learning Active participation Just-in-time Customized content Self-directed Portfolio of learning methods Technology-enhanced Learning Learning

2.3 Educational Planning and Administration Concerns • XX century: Conformity, Compliance; Curricular Contents; Faculty Development; Uniformity, Standardization; Extrapolation of the past; Procedure-driven; Quantitative expansion; Command and Control; Resource Crunch; Examinations. • XXI century: Market forces; User-oriented Research; Resource Mobilization; IPR; Quality, Excellence, Relevance; Internationalization and Globalization; Education Delivery Systems; Distance Education; Virtual Universities; Digital Libraries; Continuing/Lifelong Education; Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Employment Potential and Employability; Autonomy; Flexibility; Strategic Planning; Articulation of Vision, Mission, Goals; Continuous Improvement; Internet connectivity; Technology-enhanced Learning.

3. XXI CENTURY IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF THE ENGINEERING EDUCATION SYSTEM There are four essential sub-systems which have a major influence on the design and effectiveness of the overall Engineering System: the inputs; the output requirements; the environment and ambience; and the strategic goals.

3.1 Inputs The students (XXI century learners) entering our engineering institutions: are very technology-savvy; need multiple stimuli; have low tolerance for static

32 content and monotony; and look for instant gratification. They believe that: learning is easy and requires no effort; access to information is the same as acquisition of knowledge; acquisition of knowledge and skills can make up for lack of experience; and success and prosperity require no hard work, nor sacrifice. Today's students are used to: TV remote controls, computer games and web browsers, all of which allow them to switch content at will. Their short attention spans, lowered tolerance for boredom, and aversion to static media, all challenge educators to provide information in dynamic, compelling and interactive ways. There are acute Faculty shortages; Ph.D.s and PGs are in short supply; and Teaching is not a prime option for graduates. 3.2 Output Requirements The XXI century attributes of Engineers include: "learnability" - the ability to learn on one's own; life-long learning pursuit; ability to muster knowledge from neighbouring disciplines; ability to work in teams; exposure to commercial disciplines; creativity and innovation; integrative skills; international outlook; ability to employ IT; ability to work at interfaces between traditional disciplines; and commitment to sustainable development. The NSF Task Force on TQM has defined Quality Engineering Education as "the development of intellectual skills and knowledge that will equip graduates to contribute to society through productive and satisfying engineering careers as innovators, decision-makers and leaders in the global economy of the XXI century". The recent NAE Report "The Engineer of 2020" has proposed that the Engineer of 2020 will have the following attributes: "He or she will aspire to have the ingenuity of Lillian Gilbreth (the Mother of Ergonomics), the problem-solving capabilities of Gordon Moore, the scientific insight of Albert Einstein, the creativity of Pablo Picasso, the determination of the Wright brothers, the leadership capabilities of Bill Gates, the conscience of Eleanor Roosevelt, the vision of Martin Luther King, and the curiosity and wonder of our grandchildren." 3.3 The Environment / Ambience The XXI century is characterized by significant impact of Technology on education, industry, commerce, lifestyle, entertainment and society; emergence of knowledge industry and economy; demand for mass education; widening of

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disparities among countries and regions, characterized as technology divide, digital divide, education divide, prosperity divide, etc; increased uncertainty and lowered predictability resulting from accelerating change; the potential of ET and ICT for enhancing the effectiveness of learning; changing employeremployee loyalty relationships; globalization and internationalization; market economy; and emphasis on continuous professional development. The future of work or employment will be characterized by a fall in fulltime employment; obsolescence of knowledge and skills; changes in job requirements; disappearance of old jobs and creation of new jobs; ICT -enabled manufacture and services; domestic as well as foreign employment; off-shore employment etc. There have been significant changes in the practice of Engineering as a Profession, coinciding with the dawn of the new millennium. The principal driving forces have been, among others: • • • • • •

Constraints imposed by environmental considerations Customization demanded by diverse customers Opportunities offered by technology developments in several sectors Availability of sophisticated diagnostic and computational tools Wide choice of materials Implications of globalization, such as for example, innovation as the basis of competitiveness.

3.4 Strategic Goals of Engineering Education The Goals of Engineering Education have been examined at frequent intervals, especially in the US and UK. They are commonly classified into three groups viz. national tasks, professional skills and professional attitudes. The connection between educational and national development goals has also been examined. It is easy to equate the two. However, the problem is in identifying national goals. Are they the broad generalities as stated in the Constitution, or the resource-oriented, time-bound targets defined by the Planning Commission? The national goals of a society do not have the same degree of permanence for professional education as they do for professional skills. National priorities are likely to change with changes in government and policy-makers. It is recommended that setting national goals should depend on the value

judgements of "national advice communities" or think tanks.

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4. ROLE OF INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR PROMOTING GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS

4.1. Elements of the "Environment"Impacting on Innovation In his Presidential Address to the 2005 Annual Meeting of The National Academy of Engineering (USA), Professor William Wulf has pointed out that "the phenomenal transformation of our quality of life has been fuelled by innovations created by engineers, and the pace of innovation, if anything, is accelerating". To prove the point, the NAE (USA) has compiled a list of the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the twentieth century. While there is a widespread consensus that innovation is crucial for prosperity and competitiveness, Wulf asserts that there is no simple formula for innovation. However, a "multi-component environment "appears to collectively encourage or discourage innovation. He lists the following as some of the essential components of this environment: a vibrant research base; an educated workforce; a culture that permits, even encourages, risk-taking; a social climate that attracts the best and brightest from anywhere in the world to practise engineering; "patient capital" available to the entrepreneur; tax laws that reward investment; appropriate protection for intellectual property; and laws and regulations that protect the public while encouraging experimentation.

4.2. The Link Between Innovation and Entrepreneurship Radcliffe has described the inter-relationship of innovation and entrepreneurship. He distinguishes between creativity as "finding, thinking up and making new things (knowledge for its own sake)", and innovation as "doing and using new things (creation of new wealth)" and describes entrepreneurs as "catalysts for change by converting opportunities into marketable realities". He quotes IPENZ that "innovation is the art of creating something new and worthwhile, and entrepreneurship is the art of carrying an innovation to market in a commercial manner". Innovation is often about "taking an idea that is obvious in one context and applying it in a not so obvious way in a different context". The 3M Company defines innovation as "new ideas plus action or implementation which results in an improvement, gain or profit". It identifies three types of innovation: new market or industry; changing basis of competition; line extension. In line with the blurring of innovation and entrepreneurship in its definition, 3M has adopted the word "inventorpreneur" to describe its outstanding innovators. They invent or create a new product that

35

fulfils a defined need; promote the new opportunity or product; and manage, organise and assume many risks in establishing a new business based on that product". It is also pointed out that innovation is more about creating environments that foster innovation than about brilliant individuals. An "innovative environment" has been characterized as one that trusts, is open to new ideas and alternative approaches to solving problems and exploiting, operates in an environment of flexibility, is goal-directed with a sense of purpose, and demonstrates that innovation IS valued, and recognises innovative achievements. 5. PETER DRUCKER'S NEW RULES FOR R&D Peter Drucker, who has been quite successful in advising the corporate sector to successful performance and in defining the future course of management paradigms, has proposed some new rules for R&D. He proclaims that R&D should be business-driven, not technology-driven. According to him, the starting points of the new R&D paradigm are the business goals and strategy of the firm; for example, RCA color TV, and Sony VCRs, fax machines and copiers. First-rate R&D labs need to be set up as free-standing businesses. The R&D function would be better managed by a 'Technology Manager' than a "Research Director'. Every new product, process and service begins to become obsolete from the time it breaks even. In the context of result-based approach to R&D, he points out that any distinction between 'pure' and 'applied' research is meaningless. In effective research, physics, chemistry, biology, maths., economics, etc. are not 'disciplines' with determinate boundaries; they are tools and resources for creative use towards accomplishing performance objectives. He classifies R&D work into three different but complementary dimensions of effort: improvement, managed evolution, innovation. R&D efforts should aim high to make a real difference in the customer's life or business. Effective R&D requires both long-range and short-range results. Effective R&D requires 'organized abandonment' of products, processes, services and research projects, when there are no more significant improvements; new products, processes, markets or applications no longer come out of managed evolution; and long years of research fail to produce commercially useful results.

36 6. RE-ENGINEERING ENGINEERING EDUCATION FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY It is necessary to recognize the changing and emerging roles of Leadership,

Governance, Faculty, and support services. In the new scenario, the Teacher becomes a Mentor, a Coach, a Facilitator, a Guide: "The Teacher is no longer the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side". The Teacher is becoming less central to the learning process. The re-defined Goals of Engineering Education should focus on : Quality, Excellence, World-class; international competitiveness; national relevance; "appropriate" engineering education; identification of stakeholders, and fulfilment of their requirements; emerging demands of the profession; professional ethics and human values; social and societal responsibility; sustainable development; environmental and ecological responsibility; resource conservation; etc. The NSF Task force on TQM proposes that "Quality Engineering Education demands a process of continuous improvement of, and dramatic innovation in, student, employer and societal satisfaction by systematically and collectively evaluating and refining the system, practices and culture of engineering education institutions". The perspective planning imperatives include manpower planning, discipline-wise, regional and level-wise distribution, research and post-graduate programs, emerging thrust areas, etc. Among the emerging models are: Technological Universities, Deemed Universities, Virtual Universities, Distancel on-line Education, Twinning arrangements with foreign institutions, and Brick and Click (Hybrid) institutions. The new millennium paradigm for Engineering Education must incorporate the integration of several features, which till now have existed in isolation: • initial education + continuing, lifelong education; • institutional component + industry component; • formal education + non-lin-formal education; • education + training; • quantitative expansion + quality assurance; • technology + management; • traditional instruction + web-based instruction; • print media + electronic media; • traditional libraries + digital libraries; • educational technology + information technology; • traditional education + distance education; and • teaching + learning.

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New millennium engineering education is emerging as a multi-disciplinary, multi-mode, multi-media, and multiple-partner enterprise.

References 1. Natarajan, R., "Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Engineering

2. 3. 4. 5.

Education for Promoting Global Competitiveness", VII World Congress on Engineering Education, Budapest, March 4-7, 2006. Radcliffe, D.F., "Innovation as Meta-Attribute for Graduate Engineers", International J. Engineering Education, Vol.21, No.2, 194-199 (2005). "Educating the Engineer of 2020 - Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century", National Academy of Engineering, 2005. "The Engineer of 2020 - Visions of Engineering in the New Century", National Academy of Engineering, 2004. Natarajan, R., "The New Millennium Challenges and Opportunities for the Tertiary Education System", Keynote presentation at the XV CCEM Parallel symposium, Edinburgh, Oct.27, 2003.

ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND ENGINEERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY P. DAYARATNAM Formerly Professor of Civil Engineering lIT Kanpur and Vice Chancellor JNT University Hyderabad

The value of technical education has become very vital in the GDP growth of a nation as the contribution of the service sector is increasing at a very fast rate. Technical education not only adds to the service sector but also to Industry and Agriculture. All the developed nations are capitalizing on the growing service sector. India with a vast population is now focusing on the human resources development. Undergraduate education in engineering and technology has gained a great momentum during the last fifteen years with private participation in a major way. The nation needs to educate the young not only for the national needs but for the global competitive edge. Some of the major challenges to the engineering education for the 21 st century are: • Broad based undergraduate programme for easy mobility • Flexibility to adopt to new and changing technologies • Confidence-building in the engineering profession to face global competitiveness • Tools for lateral and vertical mobility of engineers • Quality in professional ethics and communication • Training the student to reach out beyond the class room and profession • Building knowledge base and resource in Institutions and professional societies • Value addition such as management, business etc to engineering skills • Building a reservoir of teachers and researchers for faster growth • Dynamic Curriculum 1. Trends in New Technologies

By the time one graduates from an engineering college, the student realizes that passing the examination even with honors is only beginning of the learning process. An engineering graduate of today has forty to sixty years of engineering career before him and rises to peak decision-making level, may be in ten or fifteen years. By that time, new technologies beyond the one that were learned 38

39

during student days will have surfaced. During seventies or even early eighties, no one imagined that desk top computers would rule the world with information technology. The impact of Information technology on everyday activity has changed the career of millions of young people. Considerable migration of the conventional engineers into new disciplines that were not anticipated has taken place.

2. Sustainable Professional Competence The present trend indicates that the next couple of decades will have major break-thoroughs in: • Energy New Resources, Transmission and Distribution, • Environmental Impact, • Waste management and Recycling, • New Materials for Construction and Manufacturing, • Water Conservation and Management, • Energy Efficient Appliances and Utilities • Emergence of Unpredictable New Technologies Today's engineering graduate is not exposed to many of these and needs to cope with the global competition in the emerging new technologies. Engineering students therefore must be given tools to analyse the unknown problems and make the best judgment to sustain their careers in the new environment. Skill based learning or training, even though essential, can take one only up to a point. Even for vertical mobility in the field of ones activity, one has to learn more than what was learned in the school or University. The curriculum must be designed to promote: • Analytical capability • Quick receptive and communicative spirit • Creative, Innovative and Intuitive mind • Concern for welfare of the Society and Ethics in profession • Ability to think globally and train Locally In the world of shrinking hardware of all kinds and expanding software and imaginative applications, the present day skill with outdated machinery or technology will not sustain the engineer.

3. Engineering Curriculum Institutions and the Universities must gear up the curriculum for career growth of a student at the global level and at the same time build a capacity in the nation to sustain the growth and development. A Two-fold imaginative curriculum has to be generated.

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4. Career & Opportunities The engineering curriculum must aim at producing an engineer first; then give a branch identity. The primary engineering fields like Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, etc even though important have limitations for the students, in the career development in today's fast moving world of global opportunities. Therefore, the curriculum should be aimed at engineering rather than water tight compartments of branches. Undergraduate Medical education has one degree and is a typical example of a broad based education. Even though engineering started as a single unitary system similar to medical education, now has innumerable number of branches, may be because of the needs of the industry and development. These branches have mushroomed in the recent past with private participation and the numbers game. Table 1 gives the recommendation of the AICTE undergraduate engineering education review committee that was submitted in 2004. Table I Percentage components of Instruction (Recommended by AICTE Review Committee 2004)

S.No. I. 2.

8upject CompOnents Humanities, Social and Management Studies

3. 4. 5.

6. 7.

Professional Core Professional Electives Free Electives Project

10

15 12.5

15

17.5

22.5 12.5 12.5 5

27.5 15 15 7.5

The committee expects broadening of the scope for employment besides giving the candidates an opportunity to pursue studies in another area that interests them most. This flexibility provides scope for a mid-course correction of discipline and career. It is about three years since the exercise was undertaken in consultation with the various stakeholders in designing a curriculum. The proceedings of the AICTE workshop held at Mysore during September 2006 have reconfirmed the broad-based flexible undergraduate education. There is still a scope for making the course content more flexible in view of the possible emergence of unknown technologies in the years to come. The number of engineers continuing in their original area of study is shrinking with the opening of the opportunities for better career growth in new technologies. Technology development in the next decade is not easily predictable.

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5. Capacity Building for the Nation A broader based undergraduate engineering education with a possible minor option is in the interest of the students and more so for the nation which has to compete at the global level. Table 2 indicates a slightly different model for easy adaptability and quick mobility at the global level. Table 2 Percentage components of Instruction (suggested with Minor specialization)

S.No.

8. 9. 10. 11.

12. 13.

14.

SubjeCt Components Basic Sciences including Mathematics Humanities, Social and Management Studies Engineering Sciences, Technical Arts, computer Engineering Professional Core Professional Electives Free Electives with a focus on minor field Project

Percenta e content Minimu Maximu m m 8 10 11

14

11

15

20 10 15 5

25 15 20 7.5

Large numbers of engineers are moving into management, entrepreneurship, business, administration and even to other engineering disciplines where better growth opportunities and challenges are available. A broad-based undergraduate engineering education is in the interest of the students and more so for a global career. While candidates develop their knowledge base in a specific discipline, they must be trained to use opportunities to move laterally into other areas of engineering and even beyond. Further, the students may have a special talent or interest in some other field other than the area of study. Employment opportunities may open up in new fields or new domains. This model suggests a decrease in the core basic sciences and at the same time an increase in the open elective is provided so as to allow students to move into areas of science. Similarly, a decrease in the core professional content is suggested. A wide spectrum of subjects are taught as professional subjects but when candidates move into the profession they may use only limited sub disciplines in their professional practice. For example, a civil engineer who enters into irrigation and makes a career there, may not have an opportunity to use the sophisticated structural analysis or complex structural design that were taught. Therefore, it is not necessary to teach the student of civil engineering of all the related subjects in depth. The model envisages teaching of only basics of the discipline. It is well known that there is no limit to the knowledge even in narrow areas and all can not be taught in the college.

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However, a nation must have capacity-building in all areas of Science, Humanities, Management, Engineering, Medicines, Business etc. It is in national interest that higher education looks at capacity-building for a balanced development; and gives opportunities to the students to develop additional interest and make reasonable careers. The concept of aiming at a minor area of specialization is important. The open elective can be in any discipline such that the student has the training beyond one area of study. Possible broad areas of open electives for engineering students are: • Humanities and social sciences • Mathematics • Advances in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Genetics, etc • Life Sciences • Communication and art of writing • Energy systems • Environment • Management • Multi-media • Business and entrepreneurship A nation needs Scientists, Writers, Artists; and Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Chemical engineers for the balanced growth of the Industry, Agricultural and Service sectors. With this perspective, the higher education must design and provide opportunities for individual career and also for the healthy capacitybuilding in all fields. Specialization in major and minor disciplines helps in capacity-building for the nation and at the same time provides opportunity for career growth. Floating open electives requires more teachers and better infrastructure. Further, flexibility in the scheduling of classes is required. The present mode of affiliated colleges has limitations in generating a strong higher technical education in the nation. The watertight compartmentalization of admissions into colleges, immobilizes the growth of centres of excellence. It is possible that some institutions may generate interest in some areas of science besides engineering and consequently the sciences are nurtured in the engineering institutions. The strength of the higher technological institutions in India and even in the world is due to balanced combination of science and engineering. Excellence in engineering can come only through promotion of strong science and Humanities. The credit system along with open electives provides the flexibility for the student to obtain an additional degree in another area by spending an extra year or so.

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6. Diversity in Technical Education Diversity in business, Industry, Art and Culture should be seen as strengths of any nation. No nation can sustain the growth and development with mono type of Industry or Agriculture in spite of abundance of resources. Similarly, sustained growth of a nation is inherent with the diversity of the higher education especially technical education. Large universities with many affiliated engineering colleges have adverse effects and may not bring out excellence in engineering. The explosion of private engineering colleges has brought in considerable assets as well as some problems of exploitation. It is hoped that the nation is passing through a transition stage. Let each Institute build its towers of excellence in some disciplines, may be engineering, management, or science. Some Institutions may be encouraged to offer dual degree programmes combining engineering with Management, Business, Physics, and Mathematics etc. Universities are autonomous and have their mechanism of planning the curriculum with the help of Academic councils. Even though the boards of studies and the academic councils have members from the other Academic, Research and Industrial organizations, the participation from the industry and R & D establishments in the curriculum development is minimum. Therefore, the inputs and feed back from outside the University is not high and consequently the curricula changes may not be in tune with the industrial tends; and often slow in large Universities. However, the Universities and colleges are sensitized by the placement and employment opportunities of the students. Diversity in curricula and teaching methods may be considered strengths to the nation. The evaluation system is primarily through examinations and the students are more conscious of the grades in the examination; the learning process actually starts when a candidate enters the job market and gets into professional practice. Students today are more informed about global competition, so they are getting training beyond the class room from coaching institutions. The mushrooming of the coaching institutions may look unhealthy but in the final analysis, they seem to be offer some value addition. A nation of this size has to have a wide variety of education and training Institutions. Education and training are two components and the universities and colleges are not able to cope with the training facilities for two reasons. Many teachers enter the teaching directly, so have limited exposure to professional training and design experience. Further the evaluation system is more examination oriented. An alternative system is not available for mass education at this time. Some private coaching institutions are filling up the gap up to a point.

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7. Quality Assurance Globalization has brought in much more focus on quality assurance. A number of international organizations have come up with quality certification at different levels. Quality assurance is more of an internal mechanism rather than an external supervision. Our Institutions and Universities must develop a quality assurance mechanism, a separate entity to assist, audit and encourage the quality product. Even though national level accreditation organizations such as NAAC and NBA exist to bring out the strengths and weakness of a college or programmes, the Institutions must develop built-in quality assurance mechanisms not merely for accreditation but for sustenance of the Institution. Grades and success of students in the examinations, and employment are over simplified yard sticks. The quality and motivation of the teacher is the most important factor. Therefore, the retention of teachers through salary and incentive packages comparable with the best of the industry is important.

PROSPECTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPEAN AND GERMAN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION - SEIZING THE CHANCE OF CHANGE PROF. DR. REINER KOPP Member of the board of acatech (Germany) vice chairman of the Euro-CASE Executive Committee and chairman of the Euro-CASE core group in Engineering Education

1. Introduction

In the global world of today, the development of whole regions and countries depends on some crucial factors. While social stability and fair trade agreements are important issues for everyone, some regions do have specific advantages or disadvantages. Europe is a densely populated continent with rather few natural resources. Therefore, in order to maintain our competitiveness on the global market, and to ensure the welfare of our peoples, we have to exploit the only resource that increases while we use it: the education and creativity of our people. So we are focusing our efforts on improving our educational systems more and more. We want to provide excellent education for our students giving them better qualification and new job opportunities. The Bologna Treaties have opened the road to a Europe-wide, flexible education system, where students are encouraged to learn in different universities and different countries. In this way, they will gain international working experience, as well as necessary language skills and cultural understanding. Therefore, Euro-CASE - the European Council of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering - and acatech - the Council for Technical Sciences of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities - have analyzed the development of European and German university education. Our common conclusion is: We have to seize the chance of change. 2. Which are the most important challenges in engineering education? Due to the growth of the global population up to 10 billion during this century, several socio-economic challenges arise. The worldwide energy consumption will increase, while the environmental conditions deteriorate because of climate 45

46 chlm~:es.

The future society will need more food, transport and and information. Urbanization will increase, as well as the

"'A~.ll
of of

many different technological solutions. To handle these number of natural scientists and engineers will be necessary. u'p,rnpntc and competition in global education will Since in international COinDimlC~S need internationally educated worldwide education becomes more important. education of the future not only the best but also a team-working in international

3. The main activities in .~ ......,,:: to meet these challienl~es

3.1. The

ffnW~'na

Process countries signed the declaration of universities to establish a bachelor/master

.ljOiIO~(na

which for their

47

curricula until 2010. Within three years, all students in Europe should have a unique degree. Right now, there is not yet a strict homogeneity in the length and the names of engineering programmes according to the countries, but a big progress has been made. The process of transformation provides chances and risks, of course. But we believe the chances to far outweigh the risks. The most important issue in this process is the standardization of the university education. In all partner countries there will be a two-step degree system: • The undergraduate studies last about three years and entitle the students to bear the bachelors degree. On this level of education, the students are going to acquire the relevant qualifications for the European labour market. • The graduate studies last about another two years and will lead to the master degree. It will enable students not only to acquire a deeper understanding of their subjects, newer methods and specializations, but also to develop new techniques and reach the frontier of research in their field. Thus, they will also be able to take part in research and development, be it in an academic or economic environment. These degrees need to be transparent and easily comparable. So the European institutions have developed a standardized credit point system which is continuously evaluated and improved. This credit point system is the basis for the new flexibility and mobility in the European education system because it enables students to change universities very easily and with a minimum of bureaucracy. Europe has had made excellent experiences with our international student exchange programs like "Erasmus" or "Socrates". The new system will encourage students to study where they believe to find the best education and gain the relevant skills for their working life. This opening of university education will also lead to a higher competition among universities, breaking old barriers and introducing a learning region that stretches across the whole continent. A prominent part of the new curricula will be the so called soft skills, which include competence in communication, ability to participate productively in team work, and, of course, language skills and intercultural understanding and flexibility. Besides the high - tech engineers with the education level of Master or PhD, the industry needs also "managing" engineers, to run facilities and to increase production. On the Bachelors level, technicians, and unskilled workers are also required. The importance of the last group will decrease in the future; therefore we should attract the young generation to study engineering or at least the technical modules.

48 3.2. The creation of an European Institute of Technology (EIT) One strategic target of the European activities to promote innovation-based education is the establishment of a European Institute of Technology. As shown in the timetable, this institution shall provide advice and counselling on all matters concerning technology to the European parliament and its member states. It also shall coordinate research groups and so called Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). In a couple of years, it could be a central contact point for our international partners. Several questions have to be discussed within the European Commission and the European Parliament to find the optimal way of realising such an Institute, which could be also a cluster of Excellent European Universities. In any case, Europe undertakes a great effort to move towards excellent education, research and innovation, which are the three pillars for the future of Europe.

The development of the European Institute of Technology.

3.3. The importance of life long learning With a longer professional life, upgrading of knowledge and competencies in various forms becomes more and more necessary. A key point is to find a way to rec:ogni2:e that a higher qualification has been acquired. Two basic approaches which are different are considered:

49

• Easier access to a degree based on academic validation of experience, the so called French model. That means, in France a full degree is granted, which relates more to general than to very precise abilities. It is similar to a university degree. • Certification of well defined new skills in a specific field, the so called British model. The European Qualification Framework, which has the ambition to propose a common grid to all European countries, has taken more from the English model. The EU is now proposing a 8-level qualification framework, based on education, skills and competencies, which can be a help to define a common European model. 4.

Activities of the Federal Government in Germany

4.1. Partners for innovations The German government has launched a number of initiatives in order to promote a culture of innovation and education. One initiative is called "Partners for innovations". It ran from 2004 to 2006 and was headed by acatech president J. Milberg. More than 400 experts from German blue chip companies and institutions like acatech or the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft worked in 15 initialization groups on concepts for a new innovation culture. This initiative included a foundation to support technical start ups with a volume of 260 million Euros. In total, more than 100 single projects in health care, transport, energy, nanotechnology and other fields have been supported and recommendations for actions will be given to the Federal Government, industry, and universities. Another initiative is the so called "High Tech Strategy", which aims at expanding cooperations between universities and industry. It supports 17 future fields of high relevance or with high development potential (f. e. logistics, optics, security and healthcare). The funding is 15 billion Euro for top level technology and service infrastructure until 2009. There are also institutions like the "Innovationsrat" (Innovation Council) of the German Chancellor Bundeskanzlerin Dr. Angela Merkel since May 2006, of which the acatech president is a member, and the "Forschungsunion WirtschaftWissenschaft" (Research union of industry and science) of the Federal Ministry of education and research since June 2006.

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4.2. What are the German universities doing? The most prominent development in the German academic landscape is the "Exzellenz-Initiative". It was founded in 2005 with the aim of increasing the competition among universities, and thus to achieve a higher competitiveness on the global level. An extra funding of 1.9 billion Euros until 2011 will be provided. This funding is divided into three fields. One field consists of the elite universities, which currently are only 3, but will be 9 or 10 by the end of 2007. Another field consists of the 40 graduate schools, situated at different institutes. The last field consists of 30 clusters of excellence, which means the fusion of institutes working on bigger projects.

5. More activities of associations and schools in Germany There are different organisations and associations working in the field between science, industry and society f. e. Bosch Stiftung, Wissensfabrik. A new and growing institution is "acatech" - the Council for Technical Sciences of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities - German Academy of Engineering", which was founded in 2002, and has offices in Berlin and Munich. "acatech" consists of 247 members from science and industry, and a senate, with members of more than 50 German companies, such as Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, BMW, Lufthansa, SAP, Bosch, etc. as well as the presidents of important research institutions. The working groups are organized in to 10 thematic networks: biotechnology, mobility, energy/environment, information technology, research, health technology, education, materials, production, and nanotechnology. Due to the growing need of educated young people, government and industry have initiated several programs to promote natural and engineering sciences at schools. These include mentoring programs, single projects, public contests, and partnerships between schools and industry. The mission is to spark pupils' interest in technical sciences. 6. The implementation of the Bologna process in Germany The necessary restructuring of the university education process poses some problems but also provides chances for a renewal. In the past, the German university system had a different structure: • Technical universities offered diploma courses of about five years duration, without focusing on full working qualifications after three years like the new bachelor.

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• Technical colleges offered three years courses similar to the new bachelor requirements. "acatech" as the voice for technical sciences in Germany has made an investigation into this restructuring process for the engineering faculties. While there has been a lot of progress in the implementation of the Bologna Treaties, the following points still have to be considered in restructuring the German engineering education system: • The master's degree should be kept as the paramount goal of university education, while the technical colleges can easily continue their courses under the relabelled title, bachelors. • In order to achieve this, the curricula of the former diploma study course have to be completely redone. We have to enable university students to leave their courses after the bachelor. If we don't want to loose some quality of the internationally renowned diploma courses, we have to do it in a cautious way. • The transition between the consecutive bachelor and master courses should be handled in a flexible way, preventing loss of time for the students. • This restructuring process offers an opportunity to integrate some of the most important culture and language skills into the new standard curricula. Furthermore, the transparency and internationality can be increased. These are requirements of today's global industry, which unfortunately often been neglected in the past. So the integration of the soft skills will increase the competitiveness of our education system in a worldwide context. • As a crucial aspect of university education, the teacher-student ratio has to be increased in order to guarantee a high level of education and short study durations. • Centres of excellence with European and worldwide partners have to be established and strengthened, in order to cope with the ever more complex problems of future technology. Considering all these aspects, we are confident of increasing the flexibility and internationality of our courses while keeping our high standards of technical education which are based on excellent research. In this way, working together with our European and worldwide partners, we believe we will be well prepared for the challenges of the 21 st century. 7. Conclusions

Due to the global changes, education has gained strategic importance. We have to attract the young generation to technical and natural sciences. We need competition and cooperation in worldwide education. Innovation plays a dominant role in all current activities in all European countries. Engineers can

52 playa leading function in the future if they are not only technical experts but also have: • International education, • interdisciplinary education, • and open minded perceptions with the capability to understand other cultures and society's needs. The National Academies can be the key players in consulting governments and universities for the successful transition to a knowledge-based economy and society.

GLOBALIZATION OF EDUCATION SERVICES IN THE CONTEXT OF GATS D.V. SINGH Former Director lIT Roorkee, 1002, Sunbreeze Apartments, Tower B, Sector V, Vaishali, Ghaziabad, India 201010 Sununary This paper presents a profile of the influence of the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) on higher education at global level. The paper examines imperatives imposed by GATS, the challenges and opportunities that have to be handled by nation states to engineer a dynamic system of education which responds to the change and meets the growing aspirations of the younger generation to become competitive nationally and internationally.

1. Introduction

The demand of higher education in younger countries, as compared to that in the graying countries, is increasing, whereas the supply of education services is greater in graying countries than their local demands. The result is that education services globally have become a trillion dollar industry involving Foreign Education Providers (FEPs) marketing education services abroad. Higher education service comes under the GATS regime since it cannot be included in the two exceptions defined in Article I (3) of the Agreement. The WTO members have imposed limitations selectively on the four modes defined by GATS which cover trade in education services. Since GATS globally influences the educational profile, it is in the interest of every country to be aware of the global profile, the trends of its change in the context of GATS, revise its education structure and prepare road maps for the future. 2. The Education Profile Technical education must respond to fast changing technologies to remain relevant. Our education system should be flexible and we should plan ahead since lead-time in making changes in education system is usually long. An indicator of the quality of education imparted by the institutions is that they can offer promising options to students to acquire knowledge at home, which they seek abroad and also that the institutions are able to offer attractive destinations 53

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to off-shore students for excellent education. A system of higher education whose products do not meet the high standards of quality, offers poor returns for the scarce resources invested in it. The engineers of future will be increasingly required to work in gray areas between disciplines, so they will have to be trained for learning to learn on a life long basis. The education system globally is experiencing pressures exerted by new development models, new economic order, expanding knowledge and ICT. Countries need to take futuristic initiatives, for example, a global campus concept to re-engineer education system in a technology-rich academic environment, distributed learning and extensive use of ICT.

3. Education: A global Industry Education is a trillion dollar industry. This statement implies that education service is regarded as a trading commodity. Therefore the approach of FEPs is likely to become more and more aggressive. Future GATS negotiations will influence the future trends. Many education-industry groups pressurize their Governments to push more international deregulation in the field of education services so as to open up more and more foreign markets for them. The aggressive approach is being led by the world's trade representatives who are in a position to influence Government policies in the name of free trade. Many of them have influence in WTO and corporations see prospects of a deregulated sector. The marketability of the product of these programmes (the students) is not clearly known. Also, the modalities of these exported programmes and their fees vary. Since the regulatory measures for these programmes are not very effective, one cannot be certain about the recognition for these programmes. 4. Tbe International Compulsions

The implications of GATS for higher education are not fully understood. The basis of GATS is that liberalization of trade and services will promote growth in WTO member countries. India and several other countries are perceived as good markets for FEPs. No authentic data is available on the extent of penetration of FEPs in India. It is however, believed that foreign players are targeting India in larger numbers. GATS covers education as a service through its four modes: Cross-Border Supply, Consumption Abroad, Commercial Presence, and Presence of Natural Persons.. They deal respectively with distance education, student mobility, campuses abroad and foreign faculty. The education sector is becoming part of trade liberalization. One will not be in a position to say that

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one will take advantage in one form of the trade but will remain out of another. The countries have to chart their course boldly but carefully. 5. Export of Education Services

The Universities in the exporting countries see a huge opportunity abroad and are actively attracting students from developing countries. In March 2006, more than two dozen US Universities came to the metro cities of India to recruit students. Universities from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe are also organizing such road shows abroad to attract students. The USA is the most favorite educational destination attracting yearly about half a million students. In 2004, nearly 14% (80446) of all international students in the USA were from India. A majority of them were seeking graduate degrees, but there is a mounting interest for UG courses. Education generated $ 13.4 billion export revenues for the USA in 2003 (Consumption Abroad Mode). There is a huge demand in India for quality higher technical education, a significant part of which is met by foreign campuses. Most students from India pay their way through these programmes. It is perceived that letting foreign universities to set up campuses in India, which will no doubt give an opportunity to foreign Universities to expand their market in the country. It will also enable Indian students seeking education abroad, to get the same education in India at a fraction of their cost in foreign Universities located abroad. This will save billions of dollars for students. Appropriate measures will be required to provide flexibility to such Universities in syllabi, hiring teachers, admitting students and prescribing fees. 6. Barriers to Education Export

The majority of generic trade barriers in the education service are with reference to exporter countries focusing on Mode 1 (Cross Border Supply) and Mode 3 (Commercial Presence). The barriers relate to lack of transparency of government regulations and policies, unfair administration, discrimination in taxation and less favorable treatment of foreign partners. Vis-a-vis Mode I specifically, barriers include restrictions on electronic transmission of course materials, economic needs test, eligibility to grant degrees, obligation to use local partners with time barriers for entering and exiting partnerships, excessive taxes/fees imposed on licensing or royalty payments and restrictions on use/import of educational material. The principal barriers to Mode 2 are restrictions in entry and temporary stay, visa restrictions and costs, foreign exchange regulations, recognition of prior qualifications from other countries,

56 quotas for international students. The barriers to Mode 3 (commercial presence) include permission to grant a qualification, subsidies provided to local institutions, nationality requirements, restriction on recruitment of foreign teachers, obtaining authorization to establish facilities and restriction on various categories of education. Barriers to Mode 4 relate to immigrations, nationality, quota on numbers, economic needs test, recognition of credentials, obligations for local hiring and repatriation of earnings. 7. Internationalization of Higher Education The Internationalization of higher education is a rapidly growing phenomenon. Many international branch campuses have been established in the past few years in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and more recently in some other countries. U.S. and Australian Universities have the largest number of such campuses. Institutions based in U.K, Malaysia and Singapore have also established some campuses abroad. In Malaysia foreign Universities can set up branch campuses by invitation. Twinning arrangements with Universities abroad is allowed. Private institutions can be set up by Corporations, local branches of foreign Universities and even by political parties. China allows Foreign Universities with the stipulation of several conditions on partnership, governance, the medium of instructions, and inadmissibility of seeking profit. Nevertheless, there are many institutions in China (including NIIT from India), which provide education on commercial terms. Singapore has no regulations governing FEPs and no commitments under GATS in higher education. Applications of FEPs to set up higher education institutions are considered on a case-to-case basis. The regime is liberal and flexible and it is up to the students to satisfy themselves about the programmes before enrolling. Singapore has no system of accreditation of foreign programmes. Singapore plans to attract 0.15 million international students by 2012; it presently has the campus presence of leading Universities from France, USA and Australia. Indonesia permits foreign Universities in partnership with local accredited institutions. New Zealand permits FEPs partnership with registered private institutions and also allows them to set up Universities with the stipulation of accreditation requirement. Japan closed many branch campuses of FEPs by 1990s on the territorial principle, since their educational qualifications were not considered equivalent to Japanese degrees. The regime has since been liberalized and several branch campuses of FEPs have been established with recognition as equivalent to the Japanese degrees.

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8. India and Mode 2, Consumption Abroad Indian students go abroad in large numbers. The USA, u.K. Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the major exporters of education and developing countries such as India, China, the Philippines and Indonesia are the major importers. In 2003-04 the total numbers of Indian students in those four countries were 1109941 and 120312 in 2004-05. [Source: WENR (World Education News & Reviews) IDP Australia lIE]. In contrast, India receives only a small number of students from abroad. Worldwide international students were 1.8 million in 2002-03. The 2025 projection of this number is 7.2 million. India has more than 10.5 million students in higher education in Indian Universities and Colleges. The international students in India are less than 0.1 % of this student population. India has immense potential for more international students. The country has very good quantitative resources for higher technical education. Whereas many of Indian technical institutions provide education of good quality, it remains very variable. India needs to build quality on a much wider basis. AICTE accreditation has now acquired greater awareness and is becoming a more effective instrument to promote quality in technical education. In the long run, the growing and assertive demand for good quality education will be a more potent driving force to ensure quality than are the regulatory mechanisms. India has not made any commitments under the Uruguay Round in higher education services. However, 100% FDI in higher education services on automatic route is allowed in India. Foreign participation through twinning, collaboration, franchising and subsidiaries are permitted. UGC and AICTE have issued Regulations/Guidelines to regulate PEP entries. India has received requests from several countries, e.g., U.S.A, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan, Norway and Singapore to establish their programmes in India. Further India has included higher educational services in its revised offer to GATS in August 2005. 9. Foreign Universities in India Permitting the Universities of the developed world to function freely in India will have far reaching effects on the existing Indian higher education system. It may change the concept of higher education. Presently, the perception of education in India is dominantly a public and social service in an indigenous value system. In years to come, education may transform to a commodity. Other issues are equity in access to knowledge and education at a price which could be only within the reach of fewer people. AICTE and UGC have notified regulatory

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provisions. Their effectiveness is not fully known. Invariably, ways are found to go around the Regulations, however elaborate they are. 10. Indian Initiatives The Indian education system will greatly benefit from the presence of foreign students. It will provide opportunities for cross-cultural interactions and implicitly require quality and standards high enough to attract students from abroad. The horizon and content of the education will acquire a global context that will enrich the whole education milieu and build international linkages. India needs to carefully assess all the implications of GATS and clearly declare its commitments. A broad consensus presently is that these commitments be only for higher education. Programmes need to be designed and promoted for internationalizing the Indian University system to encourage more foreign students to come to India. India needs to gear up to manage their expectation, visa procedures, infrastructure, health care, social needs, scholarships, etc. Indian Universities should be encouraged to set up campuses abroad and to establish quality joint ventures with foreign Universities. While encouraging private initiatives in higher education, pragmatic regulations are required to ensure that only genuine international institutions enter India. To become a global player in education service, India will have to adopt some practical strategies, such as matching the requirements of a particular country and what India can offer on the basis of its strengths in terms of skills and knowledge. The issues needing consideration could be academic calendar, curricula, equivalence, language skills, maths skill, etc. Positioning Indian higher education as a distinct brand will have to be on the basis of high standards, credible sources of information and communication and active promotion. 11. Apprehensions about Globalization Many people have some genuine apprehension that globalization will bring education and commerce closer. The basic concept of education is social good. Questions are being asked, if India can or should trade in education services? Indian students are demanding and need quality institutions. What will be the best option to meet this demand? Another apprehension is that student and foreign fund outflow will increase. A concern is also expressed regarding the capacity of the Indian institutions to compete with foreign institutions for good faculty, good students, global placements, etc. Other apprehensions are about the feasibility of preventing dubious foreign institutions from coming in, higher

59 education becoming more expensive, increase in rural-urban divide and effects on the Indian social and cultural values 12. Conclusions Global trade in higher education is taking place in a variety of ways. This trade is more than $ 30 billion annually. In view of the growing international trade in education services, the commitments of a country to GATS would have to be accompanied by strategic limitations, which would be nation-specific. GATS is a mixed bag. It is a challenge to the education system, and whereas it may present a threat to the social fabric, it also presents an opportunity to countries to be global players by imposing a compulsion to strengthen the educational system with policies and programmes, allocation of appropriate resources, innovative academic structure responsive to a dynamic milieu, and above all, with good governance. India needs to put up a sound regulatory framework for private education providers, both domestic and foreign, in terms of a viable financial model, covering recovery of cost, fees, student loans, future developments, etc. The issues which need to be addressed are, modality of education delivery by FEP's and the roles of regulatory bodies. It seems relevant to quote the global view of Mahatma Gandhi: "I do not want my house to be walled on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible, but I refuse to be blown off my feet by any." [Young India, June 1921] Education is part of universal culture. Globalization of education will emich societies and standing firm on one's own feet will be part of the emiching process. References 1. Background Note, WTO Secretariat Document No.S/C/w/49, Septemberl998 2. Negotiating Proposals on Higher Education by USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand submitted to WTO 3. Web Sites of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Human Resources Development

INNOVATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN ARCHITECTURE ENGINEERING XU DELONG 1, LIU KECHENG 1, SHAO BILIN 1, GAO ZHANJUN2 , XIAO BIAOI

(1. Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an 710055; 2. Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing 100088)

Abstract: Tremendous reforms and dramatic changes are taking place in Chinese higher education in order to adjust to the transition from planned economy to market economy. This is especially true of architecture engineering. With unprecedented emphasis attached, cultural quality inclusion in the curriculum has been considered as important as specialty training. With the cultivation of solid foundation, great adaptability and strong ability as the desired goals of engineering education, the training system of engineers and technicians which is featured by particular periods, stages and modules has been set up while innovative spirits and practical abilities have been more and more attended to. However, the tasks of reforming teaching materials, curricular system and teaching methods remain severe. Keywords: engineering education; architecture; cultural quality cultivation; solid foundation; great adaptability; periods; stages; modules; innovation; reform

With the transition from a planned to a market economy since China's reform and opening up at the beginning of 1980s, Chinese higher engineering education has undergone tremendous changes. The very core is the change from higher engineering education under planned economy to a new one which suits market economy. Firstly, there are changes in the management system of higher engineering education. The Chinese engineering, education reorganized through large-scale adjustment of colleges and departments at the beginning of 1950s was mainly subject to the management of each industrial ministry (mainly 60

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ministry-run). With the removal of state industrial management since 1998, universities of engineering have followed a new pattern characterized by both central and local government management with the latter as the focus. Secondly, there is a significant reform in a employment system of graduates. Since the year 1989 [l], China has changed its traditional planned distribution of graduates into a new system of two-way choice and independent selection. The graduate employment market has been gradually completed as a result of constant efforts over eighteen years. Thirdly, there has been the establishment of the training fee share mechanism in higher engineering education. Since 1994 [2], higher engineering education is no longer compulsory and students have to pay for their education (almost 50% of the total education cost). Engineering education has so far been brought to the market competition. Fourthly, there has been increased enrollment in higher education since 2000, with the aim of developing the national education and domestic economy. Up to now, the gross enrollment rate of Chinese higher education has risen from 9% in 1999 to 26%, and the transition from elite higher education to the popularized one has been accomplished. The fundamental reform in the economic system has naturally brought about major changes in Chinese engineering education with a focus on its meeting the requirements of the establishment and perfection of market economy. As the reform and opening up is penetrating deeper, there are also remarkable changes in Chinese construction and relevant industries. Infrastructure construction represented by highway and railway has been growing vigorously; the process of urbanization has accelerated steadily; private construction enterprises and relevant industries have been growing up rapidly; people's requirements about living and dwelling environment have been increasing. All these changes have posed a higher demand for architecture engineering education. At the crucial moment, an innovation pattern is proposed to fit the reality. Economic growth in China is facing a fundamental move from production factor-driven to active innovation-driven. An innovative country and harmonious society requires qualified architects and engineers, innovative scientific achievements and satisfactory social service. Therefore, while Chinese architecture engineering education is learning from advanced countries, domestic economic development should be properly taken into account so as to accelerate its growth and transformation.

62 1. Formation of the Notion which Lays Equal Stress on Cultural Quality Cultivation and Engineering Education

To satisfy the urgent need of talent to enhance economic growth after the foundation of People's Republic of China in 1950s, China began to follow the steps of the former Soviet Union in its economic and education system. A vast majority of comprehensive universities were dismembered into specialized academies, and a great number of universities of engineering emerged. The training objectives of these universities were very clear, that is, to cultivate engineers and technicians to construct a socialist country. As a result, these universities became the cradle of engineers, and each industriaJ management ministry the major corresponding sponsor and organizer of the university. In accordance with the requirements of its industrial and professional development, each industrial ministry set up specialties which became more and more specific and grew in size. This strict specialist education satisfied the demand of planned economy, relieved talents stress at the right time, assured the construction of industrial foundation, and modem agriculture. Planned economy was characterized by high centralism, lack of vitality, equalitarianism, equal treatment and slow productivity development. The higher education system under planned economy, together with people educated under that particular system, turned out to be increasingly unfit for market economy. The market economy is a competitive economy of survival-of-the-fittest, and its essence is the competition between people. One competition is the comprehensive quality concerning engineering competence, but the competition of cultural quality is even more important. Competition requires fair play, rules, and morals, and the cultural quality of the competitors is decisive. Competition results in success or failure, and is a test of endurance and mentality. Market economy is also a contract economy which calls for honesty on both sides. That is to say, not only profits but also personal loyalty should be considered. Market economy is full of challenges and opportunities, and people are expected to observe morals and law in the face of opponents or opportunities. Market economy admits individual difference and legality of private properties, and it allows a section of people to become wealthier sooner than others. Therefore, an appropriate attitude toward wealth is expected. The relationship between individual, group and society should be well balanced, and the conflict between individual wealth and social harmony should be resolved. China has chosen to promote economic development with active innovation which requires a number of engineers and technicians with strong innovative spirits and practical abilities.

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Innovation, however, without cultural moorrings and aesthetic, would be thoroughly in vain. In the process of China's moving from planned economy to market economy, a series of unhealthy phenomena have emerged, such as people's stress utilitarianism, acceleration of polarization, immorality, corruption, imbalance between environmental resources and energies and economic growth. These problems call for attention to cultural orientation in Chinese engineering education. Otherwise, no human-oriented, scientific, harmonious and sustainable development can be expected. Therefore, with no exception, Chinese government has attached great importance to the inculcation of cultural values. In 1980s, Mr. Deng Xiaoping [3] proposed the cultivation of a new generation with lofty ideas, moral integrity, good education and a strong sense of discipline, and called upon attention to ethical as well as material progress without any letup. In January, 1999, while inspecting Inner Mongolia University, Mr. Jiang Zemin [4] stressed that college students majoring in science and technology should learn some knowledge about human science, and the study of cultural values ought to be popularized. In the year 2005, Mr. Hu Jintao [5] specially emphasized the importance of "Eight Honors" and "Eight Dishonors". In June 1999, the State Council [6J formally made the decision of Deepening Education Reform, and Accelerating Quality Education in an All-round Way. Our university, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, characterized by civil engineering, architecture and relevant disciplines, emphasizes equal importance of engineering education and cultural values, and moreover it has made constant efforts in nurturing cultural quality in the students. For instance, it has launched the Culture Development Project. The concrete measures are as follows, 1. Specialties such as humanities, arts, law, and science are added, and the technical university is consequently transformed into a multi-disciplinary university with technical disciplines as its main body and other disciplines such as humanities, science, arts, law and economics as its constituent parts. The support of scientific disciplines to engineering ones is emphasized, while the organic integration of humanities, science, engineering, arts, etc is made salient. 2. Over two hundred lectures by celebrities in the cultural circle, public figures and well-known entrepreneurs on human science are held annually on campus. Quite a number of famous writers and critics are invited to teach at the university so as to improve the comprehension level and quality of the teachers.

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3. Museum of University History, lia Pingwa Gallery of Literature and Art, Museum of Architecture, Natural Science Museum, Materials and Mineral Specimen Museum are founded. All kinds of culture and arts exhibitions and various literary magazines are organized to build a rich cultural atmosphere and hence accomplishment of the students. 4. Various cultural and arts activities centered round college students are carried out. There are such clubs as college student literary club, reading party, Students' Rostrum, national flag escorting group, orchestra, chorus, dance club, social practice, and they help students to attain self-education, self-improvement and self-accomplishment. The cultural values education for years has yielded good results. Students' level of honesty continuously rises, as a result of which some un-invigilated classes have emerged. Students' sense of social responsibility has become stronger. The Loving Care Tutor organization was cited by the central government, while in the practical activity of establishing new socialist villages, the College Students Group in Support of Villages was set as a good example by the country.

2. Establishment of Specialty Training System Featured by Solid Foundation and Great Adaptability In the years of highly planned economy, Chinese engineering education was mainly in charge of individual industrial ministries. Their notion of education was mainly related to the manufacture of products. That is to say, the major concern of engineering education was based on manufacturing procedures. As a result, the industrial ministries became smaller and smaller, the specialties more and more specific while the number of specialties increased. Before we learnt from the former Soviet Union, in the year 1952, the number of specialties in Chinese higher education was two hundred and fifteen, with fifteen engineering ones. After we learnt from the former Soviet Union, however, in the year 1963, there were five hundred and ten specialties which were ratified by the State Council, with engineering specialties leaping to one hundred and sixty-four. After the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, in 1982, Chinese undergraduate specialties increased to one thousand four hundred and forty-three while the total engineering specialties increased to two hundred and fifty-five. Engineering specialties underwent tremendous changes from discipline-based to profession-based to product (or manufacturing procedure) -based specialtysetting.

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Take the specialty of civil engineering, for example. There was only one such major before 1952, and it was divided into industrial and civil construction and structure engineering since 1953. Up to the 1980s, it had been increased to almost ten, including construction engineering, substructure, road engineering, mine construction, bridge construction, railway engineering, hydraulic engineering etc. Take architectural materials specialty, for another instance. There was only one specialty called concrete and architectural products in 1956, while in 1982 it developed into eight specialties including cement, concrete, glass, ceramics, refractory materials, tile, non-metallic minerals, and so on. The specialist education which ignored cultural inputs made the students narrow- minded as well as narrow- viewed, and it was hard for them to have any bold thoughts and creative ideas. Even if there were any sparkle of thoughts, the students would not be courageous enough to put it into practice. Students were used to duplication and dared not go one step beyond the prescribed limit. There were even some eccentric ones who failed to cooperate and coordinate with others. However, in the modern economic market, scientific and technological developments have increased exponentially, and new technologies are being developed very quickly. Also some traditional products and industries are continuously undergoing revolutionary changes with high and new technologies. With the constant development of science and technology, competition between enterprises is becoming sharp & aggressive and people change their occupations more frequently. Therefore, the specialist engineering education greatly violates the general tide in the all-round comprehensive modern industry which is based on high division. It fails to meet the challenge posed by the changing nature of the work of engineers and technicians caused by production substitution or bankruptcy of enterprises, let alone meeting the requirements of the construction of an innovative country. The highly-developed market economy makes greater demands for engineering education. On the one hand, the training of students' basic theories, basic knowledge and basic skills must be strengthened. On the other hand, the cultivation of innovative spirits and practical abilities should be carried out. It is required that while broadening specialist field of engineering education, basic theories and fundamental qualities should be emphasized. Our country's undergraduate specialties have been reduced from one thousand three hundred and forty-three in 1982 to five hundred and four in 1993, and it's planned to be reduced further to about two hundred and fifty. In our university, the specialty of industrial and civil construction has been broadened into civil engineering which covers the previous construction

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engineering, road and bridge construction, rock and soil engineering. The specialties of cement, refractory materials, concrete, etc. have been combined to form a new specialty known as material science and engineering and it covers over ten previous specialties of inorganic and non-metallic materials. Changes in specialty adaptability naturally result in significant reform in the teaching content and curricular system. It has become quite pressing to develop teaching content, curricular system and training mode which not only suit the rapid development of science, technology and society, but also the development of socialist market economy.

3. Designing a Training Procedure for Engineers: Periods, Stages and Modules The acquisition of professional knowledge and skills is a rather complex systematic project in a proper sequence. Based on the training objectives of high quality, solid foundation and strong ability, engineers' training should observe the following sequence: to design the system scientifically and properly, constantly complete and optimize the system, carry out the procedures in a scientific and conscientious way, inspect the processing situation timely and readjust the parameters, discover some top talents and then train them according to their individual capability. The difficulty and focal point lie in the construction of teaching content and curricular system.

~~'_S~:__=B~~--B----+I--~S~: I

p

E

I

Integrated Foundation Period

Specialty Foundation Period

Specialty Period

j..................................................................~ ........................~..........

. ...................j

Fig. 1 Six Stages of Engineering Talents Training.

The measures adopted by our university divide the whole training system into three periods, six stages and several modules. The three periods are integrated foundation period, specialty foundation period, and specialty period.

67 The six stages based on the rules of knowledge impartment and engineering talents training are developed one by one, namely, P(public elementary stage)--S (specialty enlightenment stage) -- B (basic theories stage) -- B(basic specialty theories stage)--S (specialty training stage) -- E(specialty expansion stage), as is shown in Fig. 1. The so-called modules refer to a certain number of courses or training projects of knowledge impartment and ability training which let the students attain a certain stage. Public elementary is the basic training which is required for all students, and it differs slightly according to general categories (e.g. science and engineering, human science, arts, etc.). This idea is embodied in the architecture specialty in our university, and the system is formed as Fig. 2 shows. Generally speaking, the distribution of course credits of each major are as follows: integrated foundation period amounts to 30-35% of the total, specialty foundation period amounts to 20-25%, specialty period amounts to 20-30%, while optional courses on cultural values amount to 10-20%. Our university pays great attention to the training of the students' innovative spirits and practical ability. The university has more than one hundred students' practicing and training bases all over the country, and it puts a great deal of money into the construction of intramural laboratories every year. In its practice, scientific research is emphasized while such practical activities as experiments, practice, training, curriculum project, graduation design (paper) are much attended to. Students are required to participate in the extracurricular innovative activities of science and technology and every kind of design contest at home and abroad in the hope that their sense of innovation could be stimulated and practical ability promoted. With the annual intramural science and technology contest, students' individuality in creation is brought into full blossom. With the regular opening of laboratories, students are organized to participate in teachers' research projects. With practical graduation design (paper), students' interest in creation is fostered and their ability developed. The reform has so far gained desired results. Since 1984, students of our university have actively participated in the triennial international college students design competition which is organized by the International Architecture Organization and UNESCO. The result of six times' participation was fourteen prizes, the most in this competition. In the first China and UK co-certified Structural Engineer Test held by Royal Academy in Shenzhen, twelve people passed and four were graduates from our university.

Fig. 2 Mode of Training Procedure of the Specialty of Architecture: Periods, Stages and Modules

69 It amounts to 30% of the pass rate, while there are over three hundred universities that run civil engineering in our country. In the college students' art show competition in 2005, our university won the fifth prize among over two thousand domestic universities. Our university was among the three national Physics Model Universities and it has won more than eighty prizes in provincial and national contests in recent three years [7]. Thanks to the overall advantages mentioned above, graduates from our university are warmly welcomed by employers because of their high comprehensive qualities, solid foundation and plain style. In recent five years, the one-off employment rate has been over 95%, and our university is honored as the Advanced Unit of Employment by the Education Ministry.

4. Problems and Prospects It has been no more than twenty years since China's transition from a highly

planned economy to a market economy and the market system has not yet been fully formed. Chinese higher engineering education has been attempting to adjust itself to the requirements of market economy; however, lags and flaws are inevitable. Despite the initial establishment of the system, tasks in reforming teaching content and curricular building are still severe. The notion and system of innovation are still under discussion while traditional teaching concept and method based on knowledge impartment still predominate. Compared with Euro-American countries with quite a long history of higher education, Chinese higher engineering education is still young, and our notions of universities need establishment and perfection. Compared with some renowned Indian universities, the gap between the two is stilI clear. It is the historical task of Chinese higher engineering education to adhere to educational internationalization, opening up and its domestic reform in the long run.

References 1. State Council of People's Republic of China, Report from National Education Commission on Reforming Higher Institute Graduates Distribution System Ratified by the State Council, Beijing: 2nd, March, 1989. 2. Li Lanqing. Interview of Li Lanqing [MJ. Beijing: People's Education Press, 2004. 3. Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping Omnibus, volume 2 [MJ. Beijing: People's Press, 2002. 4. Wang Wowen. Trying to Build First Class University with Chinese Military Characteristics---on Military Chairman Jiang Zemin's Inspecting University

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of National Defense and Science and Technology [1]. People Daily, 16th , Feb. 2004, page 1. 5. Education Ministry of CPC, On the Study of Secretary General Hu Jintao's Speech and Strengthening Socialist Honors and Dishonors, Beijing: 12th. March, 2006. 6. CPC State Council, Decision of CPC State Council on Deepening Educational Reform, and Accelerating Quality Education in an All-round Way, Beijing: 13 th , June, 1999. 7. Xu Delong. Rowing on the Sea of Learniing [M]. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Press, 2003.

THE NATIONAL PROGRAMME ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING PROF. M. S. ANANTH Director Indian Institute a/Technology Madras

ENGINEERING EDUCATION There are several issues related to Engineering Education in India that need urgent attention. To begin with there are about 500,000 seats in undergraduate engineering education and according to different estimates 35,000 to 50,000 are of an internationally acceptable standard. The demand is increasing exponentially. Even to maintain formal levels a new major and brick and mortar university is estimated to be needed every week. The alternative is therefore a massive online education system which is an emerging market and therefore a business opportunity. A country like India therefore has no choice. The technology required is already available and will only improve. The communications bandwidth and computer power per unit cost will continue to increase. Technology Enhanced Learning now offers an opportunity to provide reach as well as exciting improvement in the quality of Engineering Education. TEL is not really a new concept as the next section illustrates. 1. THE MONTESSORI EXPERIENCE AND TEL It is interesting to consider two scenarios in education nearly a century apart: the first one due to Maria Montessori during the first decade of the 20 th century and the second called Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in the first decade of the 21 st century made possible because of educational technology research and the information and communication technology revolutions of the last three decades. The similarity in the basic ideas about learning are an eloquent testimony to Dr. Maria Montessori's genius. 71

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2. THE MONTESSORI EXPERIENCE Maria Montessori writes in "The Absorbent Mind", " ...... [1] so we discovered that education is not something which the teacher does, but that it is a natural process which develops spontaneously in the human being. It is not acquired by listening to words, but in virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment. The teacher's task is not to talk, but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity in a special environment made for the child . ........ ... as the children grew up we then found that individual activity is the one factor that stimulates and produces development, and that this is not more true for the little ones of preschool age than it is for the junior, middle, and upper school children." Montessori's method depends basically on creating environments that are conducive to experiential learning. As you progress towards higher and higher levels of education it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to create such environments. Technology is a great enabler in this regard. Maria Montessori did not have the technology to create such environments for higher education. Today this has not only become possible, it is becoming inevitable. Montessori would have been thrilled to see her ideas fall in place so well in the TEL environment almost a century after she articulated them. Montessori was a pioneer in the use of a scientific approach to education, based on observation and experimentation. She belonged to the Child Study school of thought, and she pursued her work with the careful training and objectivity of the biologist studying the natural behaviour of an animal in the forest. This paradigm of experimentation has become crucially important in the context of TEL today.

3. TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING Several decades after the Montessori revolution some of the leading educationists think that TEL, an emerging model of university education, may be the only viable way not only to meet the demand for higher education in developing countries but also to enhance the quality of learning itself. TEL is experiential, non-linear, goal-oriented learning in a simulated, computer-based virtual reality environment [2]. The educational environments and opportunities were not possible before the technology was in place. However it is students' learning and not technology that drives the education. TEL carries with it a new vocabulary related to teaching and learning. Montessori would have found it comfortingly familiar!

73 Old

New

Student Teacher Teaching Passive Learning Covering the syllabus Linear Synchronous Classroom teaching

Learner Environment designer Learning Experiential learning Accomplishing a goal Non-linear Asynchronous Distance learning

4. TEL'S PREMISES ARE 1. Today's students prefer to plunge in and learn through participation and experimentation in a media-rich environment than learn sequentially through the chalk and talk classroom instruction of today. 2. Faculty members should be more facilitators and designers of learning experiences, processes, and environments than teachers. 3. Intelligent software agents that can browse far and wide through robust worldwide knowledge networks instantly and effortlessly will replace specialists. 4. The role of the library is becoming less that of collecting and more that of a knowledge navigator, a facilitator of retrieval and dissemination

5. EFFECTIVENESS OF TEL The effectiveness of learning should be viewed as a research question as Maria Montessori said. The overwhelming preponderance of evidence demonstrates proof of concept: TEL students do learn, and some learn better than their campus - based counterparts. Here's some quantitative feed-back: 1. The average grade point average of TEL students in NTU is 0.3 grade points above campus-based students taking the same courses (based on a 4point scale) [2]. 2. Silicon Valley TEL students taking engineering courses via television from Stanford University have traditionally scored about 2 points higher than students who are based on the Stanford campus [3].

6. THE CHALLENGE In actuality, the most difficult challenge to TEL is achieving general change of the culture in the institution and in particular in the faculty. Faculty members are used to teaching in handcraft mode. They do everything themselves, sometimes with a teaching assistant. This method of design and production does not scale across a campus, nor is it viable due to the non-competitive quality of the end result. Faculty time must be leveraged with the aid of highly skilled professional

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assistants, including instructional designers, production coordinators, and Web designers. 7. NATIONAL PROGRAMME ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) A Workshop on Technology Enhanced Learning was conducted by IITM in Chennai in 1999. It brought together faculty members of IITs and IIMs, senior IT officials of the Government and senior officials from IT industry. The workshop effectively pooled the experience and expertise of these organizations as well as that of the Carnegie Mellon University in USA. In addition the experience of the Virtual University in Mexico was shared by their Vice Chancellor through video conferencing. The Workshop suggested several TEL initiatives. The proposal for the NPTEL was a result of this Workshop. The MHRD finally approved the first phase of the programme in June 2003. The first phase has just been completed and involved only IITs and IISc. as partner institutions. It was funded to the tune of Rs.21 crores for three years and the objective was to produce approximately 120 video and 120 web based courses. These courses were to be curriculum-based and modular. A total of 5 disciplines were chosen, namely, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Communications Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. These courses were to be supplemented by core courses in Science and Humanities that would make up the four year bachelor programme synergistic for the five aforementioned disciplines. 8. PROGRAMME ISSUES This section discusses some of the issues that are important in this national effort. Some of these are discussed below:

8.1. Organisational Issues The design team for the courses is essentially made up of faculty members drawn from IITs and IISc [Partner Institutions (PI)]. More than a division of labour between eight institutions, it is essential to achieve organizational synergy. It is important that the objective be seen as higher that the egos of individuals contributing to it. The members of the design team representing these PIs should in the long run be able to build relationships with the colleges

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in their neighbourhood. The long range effectiveness of the programme will depend on the relationship between the PI and the Target Institutions (TI).

8.2. Design Issues The target audience are initially the PIs and the TIs and finally the students. The appropriate materials of educational levels has to be identified and the courses selected and built around the demand of the TIs. In order to cater to the diversity of educational initiatives and their syllabi in a large country like India, it is necessary that the courses be developed in modular form. While the video courses are almost a direct substitute for class lectures, the web courses will be in the nature of material for self study including supplementary materials. It would eventually be necessary to re-examine the evaluation system in our Universities ie. the role of exams in creating value for the TIs.

9. Deployment Strategy The issue of deployment needs planning as well as iterative correction during the process. The current proposal is to employ several strategies: 1. Launching of e-content accessible by the target audience; 2. Broadcasting lectures through television ie. through Ekalavya channel at specific times with access after the initial broadcast, through video (streaming) server using low bandwidth solutions, 3. Distributing the materials through CDs to run on servers in TI and 4. Finally converting to print form in case all other methods fail. Tables 1 and 2 indicate the process and the implementation structure of NPTEL. The portal www.nptel.iitm.ac.in contains more complete information on the project. TABLE· 1

Content Development

Approximately 20 courses in web and 20 video courses in each of the six disciplines

Curricula

AICTE Model Syllabi, Anna University, VTU-Kamataka and JNTU Andhra Pradesh syllabi

Design

Modular: Each course with approximately 15 modules and

each module with about three lecture-hour equivalents. To encourage flexible use of modules for individual Universities by their faculty through interaction with IITs and IISc workshops and seminars and training programmes have been organized

76 TABLE-2

National Programme Committee (NPC)

Programme Implementation Committee (PIC)

TEL Coord IITB

TEL Coord IITD

Contents Review Committee

Faculty coordmators for each course from Partner Institutions and Associate Partner Institutions

The NPC consists of NPTEL National Coordinators, Chairman AICTE and user institution representatives with the Joint Secretary, MHRD as the Chairman. Prof. M.S. Ananth is currently the Chairman of the PIC.

10. INITIAL RESPONSE Up to May 2007, the number of students, professionals and teachers who have registered in the NPTEL website has been an impressive 161,700 of which the working professional constituted about 80,900 (50%), teachers constituted about 12,100 (8%) and students about 68,700 (42%). (The numbers were rounded off to the nearest hundred, lower). The registrants excluding Indians are approximately, 9600, including 3400 from USA, 600 from UK and 1000 from UAE. The total number of access hits to the website is approximately 526,000 as on May 31, 2007.

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11. CONCLUSION Distance education in UG engineering programmes is a necessity for a country like India in order to meet the demand. TEL offers an opportunity to increase the reach and improve the quality of engineering education. The NPTEL is a good beginning. Over 300 faculty in the seven IITs and IISc. have participated in the project producing about 120 video courses (each of 40 lectures) and 120 web courses covering 5 engineering disciplines at the UG level together with the Core Science and Humanities courses. The courses are curriculum-based and modular and are intended to benefit engineering college teachers as well as students. The project is in phases but the effort will have to continue - only the first phase has been completed.

REFERENCES 1. Maria Montessori. The Absorbent Mind, 1995, Henry Holt & Company,

Incorporated 2. Gearold R. Johnson, Creating Virtual Universities, Global J. of Engineering Education, Vol.3, No.2, p.75 3. StanfordOnline,1996, http://crgp.stanford.edulnews/crgp_scpd_recognized_ with_ national_award_for_distance_learning.html

GLOBALIZATION AND HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION PROF. ASHOK MISRA Director, Indian Institute a/Technology, Bombay

1. Globalization and the Knowledge Economy

'Globalization' is a term used to sum up the contemporary world order, initially referred to in the domain of economics. It has been enabled by the spectacular advances in information technology and the speed of communications which has made our world a global village. The convenience of travel has brought people all over the world closer. In short, the barriers of time and space have been compressed. This has linked lives of people across the world more intensely and· at a faster rate than ever before. There is now an increased movement of knowledge, ideas, good and money across natural borders, which in turn has increased interactions between nations in the areas of economics, politics, society and education. This phenomenon today embraces all sections of the society and its people - their lives, their livelihood, their interactions and really speaking almost all aspects of life in the present era. Advances in productivity are increasingly based on knowledge and learning. Since knowledge once disclosed spreads further than capital or people and hence today's knowledge economy is by its very nature global. All countries stand to benefit when new knowledge is internationally shared. It is against this backdrop that higher education is assuming an amplified role and significance than ever before. Institutions of higher learning, where knowledge is transmitted and new knowledge is created, clearly forms the backbone of a country's future. The country that has a superior higher education system will have the edge in today's world. Thus, it is a special responsibility of the country to provide the best education possible both at the high school level and the university level. The focus of such attention must be on creativity and innovation, especially in the higher education arena. Institutions of higher learning, therefore, must foster research and provide opportunities to students for developing new ideas and to be creative. 78

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1.1. Addressing Globalization in Higher Technical Education In today's world, the Institution or University has to have global standards of Education. Students must be aware of the knowledge that is being transmitted to their counterparts in other parts of the world and the teaching standards have to be as good as anywhere else. Moreover, students must be able to adjust to jobs anywhere in the world; which implies that cross-cultural aspects should be part of the curriculum. In particular, higher technical education, which is the engine for the technological growth of a country, needs to transform today such that is it based soundly on all the sciences, emphasize cross-disciplinary areas, and promote interactions with other fields such as economics, business administration, finance, law, entrepreneurship etc. Above all, institutions of higher education must forge a stronger alliance with the industry, the domain of application of the knowledge it generates. In the arena of technology, there can be no better route to enable the genesis of new ideas, patents and generation of intellectual property portfolios. A logical follow up to this is the establishment of technology business incubators, innovation centres and research parks. It's a truism that this is possible only at institutions which have a high level of research focus. One of the major fallouts of globalization is that companies employing engineers are increasingly multi-national, geographically distributed, and hence must deal with diverse business cultures and governmental regulations. The art of design needs to take into account both local and global cultural perspectives as there are variations in engineering practice due to differences in cultures, legal systems, environmental regulations and customer preferences. Thus, engineering teams must progressively be more diverse in terms of culture, language, etc. and hence there are increased demands for engineers with international perspectives. It follows that engineering education must change to better prepare engineers to work in diverse global environments.

2. Enhancing Engineering Education in India The experience of the IITs and their successes over the past 40 to 50 years is valuable for an appraisal of the state of engineering education in India. The I1Ts have clearly made global impact in terms of their teaching programmes specially at the Bachelors level and in recent times at the post-graduate levels. However, they still have a long way to go to make the same mark through their research programmes in the global scene. All the I1Ts have been enhancing their research agenda and are amongst the best within the country.

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Teaching and research are the twin pillars for the success of institutions providing higher Technical Educatioq. Teaching is related to transmission of knowledge. This is also undergoing a change in the current information age where the students are really partners in the teaching process. The teachers have to inculcate the culture of creativity and innovation in the students. Research is related to creation of new knowledge - specially that which is for the benefit of society and the economic growth of the country. Emphasis should be given to both fundamental research and applied research. There is a need to give a resurgence to the education and research in Science areas by exposing the young minds to the excitement of Science.In the realm of globalization, it is imperative that the Universities give emphasis to entrepreneurship. They should provide an ambiance where innovations and creativity flourish. This should lead to new ideas, patents and generation of intellectual property portfolios. A logical follow up to this is technology business incubators, innovation centres and research parks around the universities. Venture capitalists should flock around with campuses in search of projects of commercial value that they can fund. This is possible only at Universities which have a high level of research focus since they would be places where new knowledge is created and are a source for new ideas worthy of commercialization. In terms of globalization, such universities would provide opportunities for the growth of new enterprises in the country, provide employment and thus contribute to the economy of the nation. Such universities will attract high quality faculty and high quality students.

3. The Challenges in Higher Technical Education to India are the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Attract and retain highest quality faculty Inculcate the culture of research, creativity, innovation Enhance interactions with the industry Develop meaningful collaborations with international institutions Attract funding from industry - free up the government from funding to the extent possible 6. Address autonomy related issues 7. Address fee related issues 8. Address responsibility related issues, especially in developing countries

3.1. Issues related to Globalization of Education The situation in India is a rather complex one. We have a very large number of high quality aspirants for higher technical education. But the number of

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engineering colleges of global standards is not sufficient. In contrast, several western countries have quality institutes but not enough students. As a consequence, western technical universities keep attracting the talented pool of students, especially from India and China. Today, not only post-graduates, but a large number of undergraduates are also going to universities abroad; even though the cost of education at some places is many times higher than in India. This, as pointed out above, is mainly because there are not enough world-class institutions in India. The strategy to meet this lacuna lies in co-operation. Institutions with higher reputations need to share their experience with others. In the arena of higher technical education IITs should take the lead to network with the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other select engineering colleges to begin with. Such tie-ups will go a long way towards augmenting technical education in India. In this enterprise, we must utilize the Distance Education mode, i.e. foster web-enabled learning. Should India extend and globalize its education system? This is a question that follows naturally. For one it would be an opportunity for us to benchmark our education globally as well as an opportunity to earn. On the other hand, as many would ask, with a large number of high quality students available in India, need we go abroad? Besides, an implicit challenge in this is to produce high quality faculty for foreign campuses. Perhaps as an intermediate approach we should reach out to countries in the Asian-African region where higher education requires guidance. IIT Bombay has already initiated such exercises with a few countries such as Nepal and Cambodia. Furthermore, such a process may necessarily act both ways, and one needs to consider the implications of foreign universities setting up campuses in India. This may have a positive impact in that there could be more high quality education institutes in the country, which may provide healthy competition to Indian universities. However, there are concerns that the foreign providers may charge much higher fees; and salaries may be substantially higher, which may force migration of faculty and make the problem of faculty availability more acute for the Indian institutions. The Indian institutions, thus, need to evolve a clear line of thinking to counter these challenges. We can address globalization in engineering education through increased exposure of students to international arena this would include study abroad programmes, academic exchanges (faculty and student), internships abroad in multinational companies. We can address this through university partnerships including joint research programmes. It would be nice to expose students to foreign languages, history and culture of the country and teamwork with people

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of difference backgrounds. In brief, we should broaden the faculty and student activities and experiences through international collaboration - an important requirement towards globalization in today's Educational Institutions. To summarize, globalization of higher technical education needs to address the following issues: 1. Bring the culture of thinking globally in educational institutions, 2. Enhancing the overall level of education and research,Introducing new integrated curricula to promote inter-disciplinary skills with relevance to real life with global outlook e.g. management education, international affairs, foreign languages etc., 4. Increasing the number of engineering colleges which have global standards, 5. Inculcating the culture of creativity and innovation, 6. Increasing technology incubation and entrepreneurship, 7. Engineering colleges to enhance interaction with the Indian and foreign industry, specially those which are globally in their dealings, 8. Modernise the administrative machinery and other supporting systems III academia and not just labs, 9. The Universities to have greater autonomy in several areas.

4. The Turning Point Globalization has already had an impact and will continue to mould higher technical education. India is at a point where it can produce a high number of knowledge workers. Indeed, the country will need a large base of knowledge workers to play well its role as a leading knowledge-driven economy in the world. This offers an enormous opportunity for globalizing our higher technical education, a challenge that we all must pursue with vigour and enthusiasm. India will need to gear-up for meeting the challenges by revitalizing its institutions of higher learning with greater freedom and momentum. For this to happen, we all will have to be partners in the process.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION SYSTEM IN INDIA - CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS DR. DAMODAR ACHARYA Chairman, AlCTE New Delhi - 110 002

1. Introduction The present paper details the status of the technical education system in the country (with emphasis on engineering education) today. It highlights the emerging trends and the issues and concerns thereof. Finally it articulates the efforts being made to address the same by the technical education establishment so as to make the education system a world class one and its graduates globally employable.

2. Present Status of Technical Education

2.1.

Fragmented Management

The scope of technical education in the country covers degree and diploma level education in Engineering, Pharmacy, Architecture, Computer applications, Management, Hotel Management and Catering technology and Applied Arts and Crafts. While The IT! level Education is managed by the ministry of Labor different ministries such as Agriculture, Health and Shipping and Transport regulate/manage the Technical Education aspects that are relevant to their ministries. Such a fragmented management and the absence of a central control has several adverse implications, the most important being impact on the quality of technical education in the country.

2.2. Steep Growth Rate in Degree level Engineering and Regional and other Imbalances The degree level engineering education sector has been witnessing a steep annual growth rate of about 15%. This sector currently has about 1518 institutes with a combined capacity of intake of 569,000. 83

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As compared to this, the growth in the diploma education sector is almost zero. This sector has 1250 institutes with a combined intake capacity of 277 ,000. 2.2.1.

Sharp regional imbalances

The rapid growth in degree level engineering education exhibits sharp regional imbalances. For example, for degree level engineering education as against the National Average Capacity (defined by the numbers enrolled per lakh of population) of 68, the figure varies sharply from region to region with the maximum of 200 in Tamilnadu to a minimum of 4 in Bihar. The average capacities of the remaining states lie within this wide band. As many as eighteen states have an average capacity that is below the National average. Also significantly the four Southern states account for 70% of the seats available countrywide. This skew in capacity is witnessed in the diploma level education as well. While the National average is 31, Tamil Nadu has the maximum capacity at 115 per lakh in Tamilnadu and Bihar has the minimum at 4 per lakh. Here too 17 states have an average capacity that is below the national average and again the four southern states account for 70% of the total seats available in the country. 2.2.2.

Skew in favor of the new age disciplines

There are other kinds of imbalance that exist in the area of technical education. One is the imbalance in the seats available across disciplines. It is seen that the bulk of the growth has been in the 'New Age' disciplines of electronics and Computer sciences. Today approximately 70% of the total seats available are in these disciplines. The traditional branches of Engineering account only for the remaining 30%. 2.2.3.

Maximum number of seats administered colleges

in

engineering

with privately

Another face of this imbalance is that at the degree level, 85% of the seats available are privately administered and only 15% are run by the government. The interesting point to note is that the number of government institutes offering degree level engineering education has remained static for the last 25 years or so. In the diploma education field, the scenario is just the opposite. Here, 15% is I the private sector and 85% in the government sector.

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It is pertinent to note that it is only the new Age branches of engineering that

attract private investment and participation. There is a lot of reluctance on the part of private entrepreneurs to invest in offering courses in traditional branches of engineering. This reluctance also extends to investing in diploma level education on the grounds that it is not remunerative.

2.3.

Key Concerns o/the Technical Education Establishment

One factor in the favor of India is that while the developed world is an ageing world, this country has a demographic advantage of having a young population. What this means to India is that in future, India is likely to be a source for technical manpower provided we are able to meet the other conditions. This advantage is likely to continue for a good time to come. In an increasingly globalizing world the overriding concern of the Technical Education establishment is to ensure the global employability of its graduate's. Every year a large number of graduates are being produced who are to meet not just local needs but also the needs of other countries. The media is contributing to this trend by giving a lot of media space to 'the vast pool of technically educated manpower' that India has. Many Indian companies are becoming multi nationals, having overseas operations. These companies also demand globally employable graduates. In this context, it is absolutely essential that our graduates are globally mobile and that our education system is in line with the world standards. Several studies conducted on the same indicate that one third of the graduates in the country are globally employable, one third are locally employable and the remaining one third are not of employable quality. For the country to make fast progress, it is important that the latter are brought to an acceptable level so as to be employable. Also since double digit growth rates are being projected for many industrial segments, it quite probable that in future, availability of the right kind of people will be the limiting factor for economic growth. One aspect of this shortage of skilled manpower is that nothing can be done about this problem in the short run. Any changes made will only yield results in medium to long term. Listed below are the key issues that have to be addressed to ensure that our technical institutions are in line with the global standards (it must be noted that many of the points being made here are not relevant to the I1Ts. The I1Ts are very few and in number terms, they represent a miniscule fraction of the total number of engineering students in the country).

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Shortage offaculty

An area of acute concern is the shortage of faculty. Compounding this problem is the fact that there is a drain from the teaching line into other, more lucrative fields. As of now, this problem exists almost universally. Given that we produce far fewer PhD's than what is required and that the teaching profession loses people to other professions constantly, this problem is only likely to become more acute. This problem that exists by itself is further compounded by the demands of meeting global standards, aligning the curriculum to meet market needs and to be a part of some kind of an accreditation process. To address this problem, The Early Faculty Induction Program has been activated to attract young people into the teaching profession. Special programs have been put in place for faculty members who are under qualified to acquire the needed degrees while continuing to teach. 2.3.2.

Inability in meeting minimum academic standards

The academic environment leaves a lot to be desired. As most of the growth mentioned earlier is in the private sector, it has been difficult for the official technical Establishment to ensure that certain minimum standards are met. A problem arising out of the rapid growth in the technical education sector has been the inability to provide a campus ambience in these colleges. Also in question is the basic 'business model' on which the private institutions which are in the majority in the Degree level engineering are run. This is being seen in the Academia as non academic control of academic processes and opinions are strongly aligned in favor of weakening if not be eliminating it altogether. 2.3.3. Outdated curriculum and teaching and evaluation methods The curriculum has not kept up with the times. The teaching- learning-evaluation methods need to change. Quality assurance, something almost unheard of in a university context even a decade ago, has today gained an extremely high level of importance. Global recognition for our degrees and our accreditation system is an absolute must. In the present system, the emphasis on project work is not very strong. The same holds for research and innovation. As a result of an absence of focus on the two, in general graduates are not creative. And in view of the fact that creativity and problem solving ability are the two very important attributes that employers

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look for in graduates, this is a serious lacuna. The education system has to address this issue. Another concern is making the education system holistic so as to produce complete professionals. Towards achieving this end, the students need to be exposed to basic science, humanities, management and also to various cultures. When the five year B.Tech program was converted to a four year program, this all round exposure was affected. Even today, there exists a considerable body of opinion that favors going back to a five year program even if it is just to improve all round exposure.

2.4. Efforts Being Made to Address the Issues Pertaining to Technical Education in the Country Various initiatives have been made to address the issues described in the previous section. Described below are some of the efforts that are being made to make our education system a truly world class one. 2.4.1. Appropriate focus on various aspects at the UG and the PG levels

In engineering education, the under graduate level is visualized as a level in which general engineering education is imparted and in the post graduate level appropriate focus is given to specialization. The efforts are being made/should be made to design the general engineering program in such a manner as to give emphasis to analytical thinking and problem solving skills, laying a strong foundation of basic and engineering sciences, basic computer skills, good communication skill, good group working skills and humanities and management. Presently, the focus on design in UG engineering education is very less. This needs to be rectified. In addition, the students would be given the opportunity to specialize to a certain extent by the way of electives. Sufficient number of free electives would be offered to widen the range of exposure. Further a project focus would be cultivated and research and innovation encouraged. Presently these elements are either missing or are not given the required emphasis in the curriculum. 2.4.2. Flexible and innovative teaching methods

In the area of teaching and learning, efforts are being made to ensure that teaching proceeds at a flexible pace as against the present rigid system which has very little flexibility, which is not conducive to producing people to meet the wide range of needs that the user groups have.

88 It is also necessary that theory be integrated with practice. More demonstrations need to be organized through design, and through project-based applications. There is also a need to make the shift to a system of continuous evaluation from the current system.

2.4.3.

Focus on learnability and trainability

The new paradigm that needs to be created is one where there is a strong focus on learnability and trainability. A similar emphasis is needed on the ability to learn and unlearn. This trait is particularly valuable in a world of fast paced technological change where obsolescence sets in within a few months in some fields. It is not possible for us to teach something and hope that what has been taught remains relevant for an extended period of time. In order to keep up with the times, one necessarily has to become a lifelong learner. In this kind of a situation, a generalized understanding and a high degree of problem solving skills become very important. Such a state can best be reached by creating a strong base of basic and engineering sciences, a high level of problem solving skills, humanities, social science and management inputs to give a more rounded view, providing a lean core of professional courses, [not packing too much into the course work] allowing the student to explore by way of electives and an increased emphasis on project based learning. 2.4.4.

Adoption of credit system across board

One of the initiatives being under taken by the Technical education authorities is the introduction of the credit system in the country. Though this system has been in use in a number of institutes in the country for quite a long time, this system has not been widely adopted. Efforts are being made to ensure that the credit system is more widely adopted than what it is now. A credit based system, apart from greatly increasing the flexibility both for the student and the institute, allows a greater degree of integration of theory and practice. Incorporating design/minor projects into the normal flow of the course also becomes feasible. 2.4.5.

Introduction of relative grading across the country

As with the credit system, relative grading has been in use for quite a long while in the country in select places and the rest of the country has been very slow to change to it. This system addresses it self to the problem of an undue focus on

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the percentage of marks scored. This system is the standard abroad where most universities are autonomous- free to give out their own degrees. As against this, there is the affiliate system present in India where many colleges are affiliated to a university that oversees the processes leading up to the degree. 2.4.6.

Introduction of projects early on

One change being envisaged is the introduction of projects early. The idea is to have the project for a duration of at least one year, and to involve the industry in the formulation of the problem. This has been attempted with the software industry and the results have been encouraging. 2.4.7.

Continuous internal evaluation

The evaluation process that is being envisaged is one that has been in practice for a long time in some institutes in the country- that of continuous internal evaluation. This form of evaluation is completely teacher centric, the teacher having the freedom to take almost all the decisions relating to the course. All the evaluations in this system are fully internal. This system consists of three equispaced class tests of one-hour duration carrying 30% of the marks, minor project/take home assignment/tutorial carrying 20% of the marks, and an end of the semester exam carrying 50% of the marks. All practicals/projects/designs are evaluated in the class and the weaknesses pointed out. 2.4.8. Short term courses for specific industry needs

In an increasingly specialized world there are several industry segments where there is an acute shortage of manpower. Most of these segments have a very specific requirement in terms of the skills needed. It is practically impossible to produce graduate engineers to fill these positions at a short notice. In such cases, short term programs of six to twelve months are being designed to upgrade the existing personnel to fill the new roles. 2.4.9. Some essential changes in the regulation of universities for more effective functioning

Several initiatives are being actively contemplated to bring in a greater degree of flexibility in the way the courses are administered, so as to give a greater autonomy to the universities to design courses conduct programs and award degrees.

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These initiatives are- semester wise registration at the beginning of each semester, flexibility in degree completion requirement, flexibility to substitute one subject with another from the same group, abolition of external examinations, a system to capture assessment records after each internal assessment and a non negotiable academic calendar. 2.4.10. Initiatives for meeting the research needs In addition to meeting the needs of the Industry, the education system must also meet the needs of research. Towards this end, an integrated M.Tech and PhD program has been devised for B.Techs and an integrated B.Tech and M.Tech program has been devised for B.Sc students. 2.4.11.

Creation of Nodal centers

The Nodal center program has been devised keeping in mind the acute shortage of manpower and a number of other issues. The process of developing around a hundred nodal centers all over the country has been set in motion. Each Nodal center will cater to the needs of fifteen to twenty colleges that form a cluster. These centers will address different needs of the member colleges like training on content, Induction training, Qualification enhancement through modular education, Providing Central hardware and Software facilities for research, teaching/learning enhancements. The Nodal centers would also serve as hubs for placement related activities.

3. Conclusion To sum up, the AlCTE is undertaking several initiatives in the field of technical education in the country and has been taking several steps in giving all possible assistance to self financing colleges and their students to enable them to become better graduates with greater employability both within and outside the country. One achievement in this direction worth mentioning is that India is now a signatory to the Washington Convention. What this means to the technical education scenario is that after a few years of probation, Indian engineering degrees will be treated on par with those from other countries. During the probation phase, India will have the benefit of mentoring support of the member countries.

HUMAN RESOURCE AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR MISSION·ORIENTED HIGH TECHNOLOGY ACHIEVEMENTS . CHANGING PARADIGMS AND EMERGING DIRECTIONS IN INDIAN CONTEXT

BALDEV RAJ Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Kalpakkam-603102 T.N, INDIA Email: [email protected]

1. Introduction

Human Resource Development (HRD), Knowledge Management (KM) and Planned Capacity building are the key factors for National Prosperity. To achieve front ranking status and be globally competitive for any academic or research institution, frontiers in science and technology are vital. As indicated by G. Patch (Knowledge Management Magazine, Oct 1998), the consequences of inadequate HRD and KM planning can be recognized by the fact that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has admitted that the knowledge of how to put a man on the moon has been lost. The implication of this can be understood when one recognizes that the project was considered to be the largest scientific and industrial achievement in the history of Mankind with more than 400,000 engineers and scientists participating with a total expenditure of about $150 Billion. Human beings have always thirsted for enhancing the knowledge for technological achievements. Nature is a fascinating playground of science. Science, technology and human civilisation have grown together. Curiosity serves as the primary motivation for scientific progress. Many a time it is also true that necessity is the mother of many inventions. Inventions are only possible with systematic scientific investigations and a broad human resource base. Many Indian vision and mission oriented programmes, particularly in strategic and core sectors, have also led to systematic human resource development and effective knowledge management. In our Vedanta, it has been recorded that intuition is not a freak of nature. Man develops it through self-culture and acquires 91

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knowledge and accumulates experience over a period of time. Wisdom is the basis for scientific intuition. R.W. Emerson quoted that "Our Knowledge is the amassed thought and experiences of innumerable minds". It is clear that, human resource development is an essential requirement for technological progress and for enhancing the quality of human life. From science, we develop science-based technologies. It is always the intuition of human being that leads to wisdom through observations and in turn, human beings develop knowledge through experimentation. This is true in all fields of life and the knowledge encompasses a variety of fields like science, engineering, medicine, management, economics etc. As quoted by Bill \Vulff, "there is only one nature - the division into science and engineering is a human imposition, not a natural one. Indeed, the division is a human failure; it reflects our limited capacity to comprehend the whole". A number of paradigms have led to continuous evolution of human resource development and knowledge management approaches. Some of these paradigms are, knowledge explosion leading to core specializations, adoption of current technologies in education and teaching and continuous upgradation of knowledge and skills with current international advancements. Similarly, globalization has further induced the need to nurture human resources to compete globally, innovations and skill to develop brand status of products. Additionally, competitive information resources are being developed and also focus is made on inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional partnerships for developing professionals as well as for building institutions. Research-industryacademia consortium is becoming increasingly relevant and crucial to realize advanced technologies with economic benefits from intellectual strengths. The major role of academic institutes and teachers in nurturing young talents to harness future leaders in various fronts, anticipating the future demands of the country is well recognized. It is important to train and retain people with high technical capabilities so that institutes can attain brand status. The elite academic institutes are known by their faculty and alumni. Each academic institute evolves its own specific knowledge and human resource management models and strategies. A typical model for university based knowledge mission and human resource development is shown in Fig. 1. In India, we have an interesting challenge with respect to human resource management. While we have large unemployment in engineering and technology, we also have a shortage of skilled manpower in certain areas of engineering. This can be overcome by developing a judicious mix of manpower that meets the demands of the industry.

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Cutting edge research update syllabus and labs with current developments and trends

Cum Academic status (Centres of Excellence)

To participate in National and International Programmes

Fig. I. Typical model of knowledge and human resource management for a university.

A constant interaction is required among the academic institutes, Governmental bodies, Industry and Research Institutes to identify the type of manpower required for the nation. Accordingly, the academic institutes are required to reorient their academic programmes and curriculum. Teachers and professionals playa major role in moulding the students and young engineers who are the future of the scientific, technological and managerial backbone of the country. In this context, it is a challenge to sustain an enthusiastic and motivated ambience with the well proven guru-shishya culture to promote excellence and innovation. It is also a challenge to attract the best at all levels, for example, students, faculty, scientists, engineers, economists, managers and administrators. Some factors that promote this include: taking iconic personalities as role models, transparent indices for recognition, culture of excellence, sensitivity to youngsters, philosophy of realistic projection of successes to all related policy makers, funding agencies, etc., encouraging interaction with peers and collaborations with frontline groups and imparting sustained motivation. These factors are based on my interactions and experiences with educational institutes in the country and abroad, including University of Massachusetts, USA, IZFP, Germany, Cole, France, IITs, IISc., Bangalore, mCT, Mumbai, VIT, Vellore, PSGCT, Coimbatore, Sathyabhama University,

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Chennai and Central University, Hyderabad. Encouraging Governmental policies and support from various sources like Department of Science & Technology (DST) have resulted in vibrant academia-industry-R&D interactions thus providing an excellent platform for achieving breakthroughs. Government is also encouraging establishment of centres of excellence in India for pursuing cutting edge research and technologies and to be in the frontline to sustain the global competition. The experience of human resource development and knowledge management for the success of a mission-oriented Centre i.e. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, established for development of fast breeder reactor technology, is discussed in the following sections. The mission of the Centre is to conduct broad based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and advanced engineering development, directed towards the establishment of the technology of sodium cooled Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) and associated fuel cycle facilities in the country. The mission also includes the development and applications of new and improved materials, techniques, equipment and systems for FBRs and to pursue basic research to achieve breakthroughs in fast reactor technology. The mission is also to realize the vision of becoming a global leader in sodium cooled fast breeder reactors and associated fuel cycle technologies by 2020.

2. Human Resource Development In order to ensure human resource development on a sustained basis and to facilitate innovations and to promote research and development activities, the centre aims to have the ambience of an academic institute, a research centre and an industry as the mission is to develop science-based technology for fast breeder reactors. Towards this, the centre is constantly endeavoring to enhance the interactions and collaborations with a number of academic institutes, universities, research centres and industry. A number of research students from various academic institutes undertake research projects at the Centre, thus providing ample opportunity for the Centre to pursue innovative research with bright young students, research fellows and research scholars under the guidance of in-house experts. The projects are aimed at providing inputs to design and development of FBRs, development and characterization of structural materials and design and development of fast reactor fuel reprocessing facilities. The addition of this young manpower, with a clear plan of research and time-bound schedules will enhance the quality and quantity of the research programmes of the Centre.

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2.1 Indian FBR programme and Challenges A brief account of the Indian FBR programme is discussed here. India started the FBR programme with the construction of Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR). FBTR is a 40 MWt (13.5 MWe) loop- type reactor. The design is identical to that of Rapsodie-Fortissimo, but for the incorporation of steam generator and turbo-generator (agreement signed with CEA, France in 1969). The FBTR has been in operation since 1985. The successful operation and maintenance of this research reactor has generated a wealth of data and provided valuable operational experience for the skilled manpower and thus, putting us on par with a handful of countries who have mastered this complex technology. Based on this, the Government of India granted financial sanction in September 2003 for the construction of the prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR). A 500 MWe PFBR that uses mixed oxide fuel, based on the indigenous design, is under construction at Kalpakkam. The construction of PFBR has been undertaken by MIS BRAVINI, a public undertaking company. The PFBR is scheduled to be commissioned by 2010. Beyond PFBR, four units of 500 MWe FBR (twin unit concept) similar to the PFBR with improved economy and enhanced safety are planned to be built by 2020. These reactors are aimed with unit energy cost reduction by 25 % compared to the PFBR. Subsequent reactors to be constructed would be of 1000 MWe capacity and will be operated with metallic fuel. A number of challenges are to be met to realize these goals, specifically with respect to human resource development and knowledge management to successfully sustain such a long term programme. The challenges include (1) reduction in capital cost through innovative and improved design and construction practices with reduced time for construction, (2) reduction in fuel cycle costs by enhancing the burn up and using improved core structural materials having high radiation resistance, (3) development of structural materials for reactors having design life of 100 or more years, (4) enhanced safety by adopting shutdown systems having passive features, passive decay heat removal concept and sodium fire protection and (5) to achieve higher breeding ratio by utilizing metallic fuel instead of oxide fuel. The fast breeder reactor programme is aimed at having a closed fuel cycle approach, which is another challenge. We also aim at developing innovative fast reactors with safety, economy and enhanced life. As part of the closing the fuel cycle strategy, co-locating fuel fabrication & reprocessing plants and waste treatment to minimise hazards and to recover valuables are followed. The challenges for reprocessing plants include development of complex technologies for process equipment, remote handling

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systems, storage and management of radioactive waste and instrumentation and control systems. It is well recognized that the success of fast breeder reactor and the associated fuel cycle programme is ensured only when we have an expertise base in multi-disciplinary technologies over entire fuel cycle, choice of sound design concepts, peer reviews and regulatory approvals, comprehensive R&D, and full scale testing of components in air and sodium. Finally, 'closing the fuel cycle' requires industrial expertise from fabrication to waste management. This complex programme is pursued with the large involvement of various units of DAB, collaboration with reputed R&D and academic institutions and technology development with industrial partnership. We continue to receive full support from academic and R&D institutions for this nationally important mission that provides energy security on a sustained basis to our country.

2.2 Comprehensive HRD strategy followed at [GCAR The comprehensive programme being followed at IGCAR to meet the human resource requirement on a sustained basis is shown in Fig. 2. The recruitment is done directly through interviews, through various training schools established in different Centres of DAB, visiting scientist schemes, research fellows scheme and K.S.Krishnan fellowship programme. Further, a number of technical programmes including workshops, seminars, conferences, management programmes, quality circles, ISO certification and interactions with professional societies are organized at the Centre. The employees of the centre are also encouraged to participate in such programmes organized by outside agencies. In order to gain from international expertise and experiences, collaborations and exchange visits with international institutes are also actively pursued. The Centre also participates in the programmes organized by international bodies such as International Atomic Energy Agency and World Nuclear University for human resource development and exchange of experiences. The philosophy followed is to recruit the best and provide continued challenges, opportunities, knowledge and skill upgradation programmes and facilitating the recognitions amongst peers for sustained motivation and growth. The linkages with academic and R&D institutes and industries that are pursued by the Centre include: (1) MoU with academic and research institutes for undertaking specific projects and exchange of faculty and students, (2) Research projects to graduate and post graduate students, (3) External registration of employees for higher studies with projects pursued with joint guidance from the Centre and the academic faculty, (4) Research support for the faculty and students for PhD programmes, (5)

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Organisation of refresher courses and workshops on specialized topics of interest and (6) sponsored research projects. To maintain the dynamism of the research and development pursuits and also to realize the set goals of the mission oriented programme, technological milestones with time schedules are identified and periodically monitored for their progress through efficient planning and execution of the activities. The types of milestones include finance, research and project milestones. In the area of basic research aimed at innovative technologies, a set of international benchmarks are identified to be achieved. The management synergizes the linkages among basic research, engineering development and technological deployment to achieve the mission and vision of the Centre. Hum,m Resource M,Hldg..:mcTll .It {(

Direct i{CtTultmcnt

International Collaborations lZFP, Germany NUT,Japan

,e AR

K.S.Krishnan Fellonship

World Nuclear Society and IAEA Programmes

Fig. 2. Strategy at raCAR for human resource management on a sustained basis

In the area of human resource management, the merits and demerits of the top-down approach are taken into account and adapted suitably. The merits include time-tested method, disciplined structure and monitoring at each level. The demerits are that it does not allow for cross-fertilization of novel ideas, unidirectional flow of instructions without any feedback on the system performance. The human resource management system should cater to

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disciplined/maverick and average!creative persons. The management should have a broad perspective and maturity to accommodate diverse professionals with varying levels of expectations. The management should have an open mind for continuous structural changes as required for a more sensitive, vibrant and dynamic management. Mentoring is one of the methods in getting the feedback and also for overcoming the limitations of the top-down system, which is followed at the Centre.

2.3 Mentoring Mentoring is a worthy proposition to achieve success in realizing the mission and vision of high technology domains of high national relevance. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai stated that "Countries have to provide facilities for its citizens to do frontline research within the resources available. It is equally necessary, having produced the men who can do research, to organise task- oriented projects for the nation's practical problems ... ". It is the duty of the management to facilitate young researchers to pursue the investigations without hindrance, by committing to provide all the facilities required. Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) stated that "Mentoring plays an important role in shaping the career of young professionals". As part of the mentoring programme, multi-level nurturing is followed at IGCAR. The Director empowers the Group Directors for effective management and implementation of programmes. The Group Director advises and coordinates the research activities with Division Heads. The Division Heads exercise effective control and monitor academic and financial milestones of individual sections. The Section Heads take individual care of young engineers/scientists and nurture their talent and skills. The technical staff are provided with proper guidance for the execution of work. This is backed up by direct and free access to individuals at all hierarchical levels with a "MEET ME" approach of the Director, without any hierarchical barriers. As part of the mentoring programme, periodic exercises are carried out for young and middle level scientists/engineers for continued improvement of the overall performance through feedback on a sustained basis. In one such mentoring exercise carried out for young scientists with less than three years of service, the following parameters were analysed: (1) Assignment of clear & goal oriented work, (2) Proper guidance of seniors, (3) Availability of experimentaVtechnical facilities, (4) Conducive working environment, (5) Availability of library & other resources, (6) Purchase procedures and (7) Recognition of work. The analysis was carried out separately

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for young scientists working in Basic Sciences R&D, Engineering Sciences R & D and Projects & Services, as the types of works and relevance of various parameters are different. The feedback obtained on a 0 to 10 scale has been used for improving the working conditions. A number of other parameters including the facilities at township were also analysed for taking remedial measures for ensuring enhanced satisfaction at office and also outside office. A similar exercise was also conducted for middle level officers having experience of 5 to 10 years, with excellent results. Based on the feedback obtained from the mentoring exercises, several structural reforms have been carried out to improve further the research environment of the Centre. 2.4 Peer Review Exercise

In order to ensure that the programmes pursued by different groups are in tune with the mission and vision of the Centre and also to get the benefit of the peers in the relevant fields, a peer review exercise was carried out for physical sciences, chemical sciences and engineering sciences. Such exercises are undertaken periodically by all eminent institutes world-wide, so as to have an academic audit as well as to ensure the competitive and deliverability edge of the scientific manpower. The broad objectives of the peer review exercise, carried out at IGCAR, include providing important inputs concerning the level of excellence in the programmes, effective utilization of facilities and human resources and also to get suggestions based on the wisdom of the peers with respect to mid-course corrections in on-going activities, collaborations both within DAB units and with national research centres and academic institutes, initiation of new programmes towards meeting the objectives of the centre, increased synergism and a road map to meet the planned growth of FBRs. These peer review exercises are very useful in bench-marking our academic environment, international competitiveness in basic research and the synergy in science & engineering research to deliver the technological milestones. The peers have provided valuable suggestions for fine-tuning our research programmes and for strengthening our efforts in the above directions. Various exercises such as mentoring, peer review and assessment of innovative behaviour and motivation with feedback from one to other (Fig. 3) are aimed at enhancing the innovative potential and also international leadership in the chosen fields of research and development of science based technologies for the Indian fast breeder reactor programme.

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Peer Review

Mentoring

Innovation & Leadership

Innovative Behaviour & Motivation

Fig. 3. Feedback Loop from Multiple Exercises for ensuring Innovation and Leadership

2.5 Homi Bhabha National Institute The Romi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), recognized as a university, is a new initiative taken up by Department of Atomic Energy for human resource development. IGCAR is one of the ten constituent institutes (CIs) of the RBNI. The HBNI encourages the pursuit of excellence in science and engineering, critical for the progress of nuclear technology in India. The institute provides an academic framework for integrating basic research with technology development within and across the various constituent institutes of the HBNI. The institute provides the means to enhance inter-disciplinary research carried out within or across the CIs, which has been the hallmark of the R&D programmes of the CIs. The HBNI seeks to attract and nurture high quality manpower in sciences and engineering for a career in DAE or elsewhere. The academic programmes that can be pursued in the HBNI include Ph.D., M.Tech., M.Phil., M.Sc. (Engg.), integrated M.Sc. and Post-Graduate Diploma. All the persons selected for various training schools of DAE would get Post-Graduate Diploma with a possibility for up-gradation to M.Sc. (Engg.), by submitting a thesis on a relevant

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research topic. Towards this, the Centre has already appointed steering committees in physical, chemical and engineering disciplines so as to formulate necessary guidelines, course work and the syllabus for various courses. The academic programmes will commence from September 2007. This will be a stepping stone in ushering an university/academic environment at the Centre.

2.6 Commencement of Training School at IGCAR To meet the urgent and growing need of scientific human resources with the right training and emphasis on Science & Technology of Fast Reactors and associated fuel cycle facilities, the need for Training School for fresh engineers at IGCAR has been felt for a long time. With sustained efforts, patience and perseverance, this has become reality from September 2006. The training programme is being conducted in three disciplines (viz.) Mechanical, Electronics & Instrumentation and Chemical engineering. The training school at IGCAR is affiliated to BARC training school. The faculty for teaching has been drawn from the eminent Scientists and Engineers working at IGCAR and a few others from outside. Widening The Scope of The Training School with the addition of more engineering and science disciplines, has been planned. This will provide well trained manpower for various research activities of the Centre in the near future.

2.7 Networking of Academic Institutes, Research Centres and Industry rGCAR endeavors to continuously enhance the pursuit of coherent synergy among academia, research centres and industry with the help of advanced information technology including virtual clustering of organizations, E-sharing, E-learning and E-education. It also endeavors to have collaborations with these organizations. The following key factors have been identified and followed to ensure the success of such collaborations: dedicated and continued availability of academic institute professors (Investigators), dedicated coordinators from the Centre, clear definition of project proposals with high quality, periodic reviews at higher level, clear identification of responsibilities among collaborating partners, appreciation for investigators and coordinators and joint publications, recognitions and awards. At IGCAR, we have been having fruitful collaborations with many eminent national and international academic institutes, yielding many mutually benefiting results.

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3. Knowledge Management

IGCAR being a frontline R&D organization working in various advanced and challenging areas, requires knowledge management (KM). As the knowledge has a longer life cycle, the knowledge acquired by various experts and technical people should be preserved in a form that would be available for the organization, even after the employee leaves the organization. For example, more than 1600 employees have resigned/retired since the inception of the Centre. Among the existing manpower of approximately 2500 people, about 450 employees would retire in the next five years and about 865 in the next ten years. This demands an appropriate KM strategy to ensure that the knowledge is not lost over the years. KM strategy is structured around the answers for the basic questions of any strategy: (a) where are we now?, (b) where do we want to be? and (c) How do we get there? Knowledge resources are identified and needs are well understood. Knowledge can be tacit or explicit. Explicit knowledge is documented (it can be further improved) and the mechanism for information flow exists. Mechanisms have been evolved at our Centre for the collection and dissemination of the tacit knowledge. The management's vision is very clear in this regard and a proper knowledge management policy has been framed and implemented to reach the goal. Towards this, a scheme for knowledge flow has been established as shown in Fig. 4, and the following knowledge management policy is followed at IGCAR: 1. For every group, an information cum knowledge management officer is identified and the task force with these officers as members ensures the collection of explicit knowledge and dissemination of this information. 2. Each group is provided with a dedicated Information Management server which is connected to the intranet. 3. Group DirectorslDivision Heads and the Information cum Knowledge management officers are responsible for enriching the knowledge and post it to their respective server. They also ensure collection of implicit knowledge through various mechanisms mentioned above. 4. The implicit knowledge collected is authenticated by the Group Advisory Committees/specialist groups before posting on to the server. 5. The knowledge which is in the form of hardcopy i.e., design reports, publications etc. will be converted to electronic form and stored in the Information Management Servers(IMS). 6. An e-Journal would be started and published on the intranet periodically with all unpublished articles, results, experiences etc. An editorial board with domain experts as members would run the e-Journal.

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7. State of the art knowledge management tools would be installed and all are encouraged for using these tools. 8. The knowledge would be disseminated on 'Need to Know' basis with proper authentication mechanisms. A separate system would be worked out for archiving the confidential information. 9. The contribution of knowledge by the employee would be acknowledged and appreciated by the management. 10. A steering committee of senior officers would ensure the smooth functioning of the total project. 11. Quarterly progress reports would be submitted by the task force to the steering committee IIGCAR Scientific Committee for review.

Integrated Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle

Facility

Technology transfer to

Strategic areas & Industries

Fig. 4. Knowledge Melting Pot at rGeAR

3.1 R&D in Knowledge Management It is also planned to carry out the following R&D in Knowledge Management so

as to maximize the benefits to the Centre: Acquire phase: The important entities in the 'Acquire' phase is the people, content and technology. Knowledge regarding development of FBR Technology is acquired by the employees of IGCAR, employees of manufacturing companies (L&T, MT AR-Hyderabad etc.) staff of collaborating Educational Institutions

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(lIT, IISc, PSG College etc. ), collaborating Industrial Institutions (NFC, ECIL, HWB, BARC, BHAYINI) and Regulating Bodies (AERB). A suitable methodology is to be evolved for preserving the knowledge of personnel belonging to related organizations other than IGCAR. For transfer of knowledge, conventional methods of delivering lectures may be suitable for officers but actual on-the-job demonstration will be appropriate for tradesmen. Hence, research will be carried out in developing methodology for converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. R&D Mechanisms: Different mechanisms like E-Mail Group, Bulletin Board, Chat-session, shall be tried for maximizing the transfer of knowledge. There is a lot of scope in improving. The human machine interface systems of knowledge servers

Academic Institutes R&D organisations Industry

Collaborations

................. ....... ~

.....

....

\,Attracting & young , talent

Scientili~

E~owering

Breakthroughs for Technology

,

?..

\

, ....

................................................~ r-------

Goal oriented approach Lateral interactions

Team Approach

Human Resource Management

Fig. 5. Strategy for innovation and leadership in fast breeder reactor technology

R&D in Utilization of Knowledge: This mechanism enables that each employee makes use of the knowledge of other employees. A Knowledge-tree needs to be developed in the Knowledge Servers so that the browser can quickly locate the concerned specialists in the topic of his / her interest and display the expertise and research accomplishments. R&D in Measurement of Knowledge Assets: An Appropriate Model needs to be developed for each organization for the measurement of knowledge

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assets. The Model depends on the objective of the organization. Any mismatch between the objective and culture of the organization shall be periodically measured and corrected. An appropriate performance appraisal system needs to be developed such that each employee is motivated to share his / her knowledge with other employees. The various strategies followed by the management to meet the objectives and goals of the Centre include (i)clear and definite mission with vision, (ii)effective and sensitive management style with ethics, (iii) decentralization for proper and optimal utilization of financial and human resources, (iv) empowerment of designated heads for quick decision making, (v) periodic monitoring of technical and financial milestones, (vi) encouraging excellence in all domains of academics, research, technology and management and (vii) promoting cross-fertilization of good ideas across various groups/ disciplines. Further, the management promotes task-oriented research as well as free thinking, spots the talent and encourage new talent as a motivation exercise, establishes multi-disciplinary "Task Forces" in selected frontier and strategic areas which also allows the identification of potential leaders, accountability and recognition. This will also ensure that both successes and failures are equally acknowledged, particularly in risky areas of research, providing avenues for recognition of the work by encouraging participation in National/International forums, encouraging young employees with commitment and capabilities to pursue higher studies for acquiring technical skills and recognition. With all these proactive steps and comprehensive management policies, we are confident that we would be able to achieve the vision of global leadership in FBR Science & Technology by 2020.

4. Summary The importance of human resource development and knowledge management, in the context of changing paradigms and emerging directions in science and technology has been discussed in the paper. The approach followed in the areas of human resource development and knowledge management at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, towards achieving the global leadership in the fast breeder reactor technology has been highlighted. Some of the approaches such as motivation, mentoring, peer review, collaborations with academic institutes, research centres and industry, effective utilization of the inhouse institutes like Homi Bhabha National Institute and knowledge management strategies have been discussed.

ISSUES ON ENGINEERING ETHICS AND EDUCATION - A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE HARUKIUENO Principles of lnfonnatics Research Division, National Institute of lnfonnatics, Japan 2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8430 Japan [email protected]

Abstract Engineering supports the sustainable development of the society. Prevention of injury, accidents and disasters caused by technology, as well as prevention of destruction of a social order caused by technology, are important social subjects for "technologyoriented global society" in the 21 st Century. This paper discusses key issues in this regard that include the role of Engineering, the basic idea of Engineering Ethics, the cultural analysis of Code of Engineering Ethics and its management, international collaboration for solving problems for our sustainable future, and so on. The discussions are based on differences in traditional cultures and historical backgrounds between Japan and UK, Japan and US, Japan and Asian countries. Through the discussions, issues for further considerations for developing a suitable idea of Engineering Ethics as well as a Code of Ethics are proposed based on so-called US model that has been developed to be functioning for engineers in US. In short, "autonomy" is the base of the US model, and "harmony" should be based on Japanese model to be developed in the future. CAETS is expected to take a leadership in this domain.

1. Introduction The 21st century is referred to be a "technology- oriented global society" which is supported by advanced technology such as IT, and the role of Engineering becomes much more important than ever before. Only engineers know the details of technology and products. In such a situation, society requires engineers to work with the highest ethical standard in addition to the rich knowledge and expertise obtained through enough experience in their professional domains. However, recent newspapers frequently report that accidents caused by technology, illegal behaviors of engineers and social disorders caused by engineers are increasing worldwide. Therefore, international cooperation in addition to strategic domestic measures for the education of Engineering Ethics and campaign are important. It is pointed out that the focus has been on the training for professional ability in solving problems in conventional engineering education. However, with progress of social globalization and increase of a social responsibility of engineers, the importance of education of Engineering Ethics and morals as a human-being have to be recognized as essential. Nowadays, Engineering Ethics 106

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is one of the core subjects in engineering education. While, the situation varies country by country, and in many countries even the concepts of Engineering Ethics seem not to be understood enough for fostering engineering professions, international cooperation is definitely important in order to make a breakthrough in this issue. Engineering Ethics has been established and has progressed in U.S.A. Also, the fundamental idea and the Codes of Engineering Ethics have been designed to harmonize with American culture and social system. For example, in a so-called American model of Engineering Ethics, "autonomy" and "self-responsibility" are fundamental principles. In contrast, in Japan and some Asian countries "an engineer as a member of a belonging organization" and "harmony and cooperation" are recognized as virtue, and autonomy as well as selfresponsibility are not well acceptable as good behavior based on the traditional culture, that might be influenced by Confucianism. In other words, working with the American model of Engineering Ethics in all contexts is difficult. Moreover, it might cause some disorders in such countries. For example, leading engineering scientists of Engineering Ethics of Japan expressed their personal impressions such as "The concepts as well as Code of Engineering Ethics should express just the ideal idea for ideal engineers, and I cannot believe that engineers could behave so in a real situation". The author does not know the true situation in US regarding this issue. The objective of this paper is to highlight this side of Engineering Ethics in engineering education and promotion. Anyway, Engineering Ethics should be harmonized to the traditional cultures and the social system of each country. Against this background, engineers are required to collaborate with each other in solving complex technological tasks in a global society. It should be stressed that we engineers should understand cultural differences and accept them in international competition and cooperation. Some items of Code of Engineering Ethics are internationally acceptable as common standard, and others would depend on different cultures. This is inevitably the key issue to be addressed by international collaborations for the future of Engineering and sustainable development. It is understood well in the community of Engineering Ethics that the Code of Engineering Ethics is the moral standard of engineers to be declared to the society as a profession. However, most engineers work as employees of a company. Major companies have established a "compliance management system" to achieve social responsibility. The Code of Conduct is established in this framework for the employees of such companies. The employed engineers, therefore, are strongly controlled by such code when they work as professionals

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belonging to such companies. The independence of an engineer, i.e., selfresponsibility, is restricted in this structure. The restriction would be mild in US, and strong in Japan. According to recent newspapers many unethical accidents have occurred due to unethical business activities at the organizational level, i.e., the representatives of companies. Engineers face a dilemma in such a situation. In a country like Japan the Code of Conduct in the framework of Compliance would be reasonable for functioning in "organization-directed" society like Japan [13]. The Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ), in cooperation with Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and National Academy of Engineering, Korea (NAEK) has been organizing Round Table Meetings (RTM) for ten years to collaborate on engineering education, engineers as professionals, energy and environment, and so on. In November, 2004 "Declaration of Code of Ethics for Asian Engineers" was signed by the presidents of three academies. This is one of fruitful outcomes [1]. (note: RTM was renamed to EA-RTM two years ago to expand collaborations to greater East Asia) Follow-up activities are being continued for further development on Engineering Ethics in East Asia. Collaborations throughout the world would be designed appropriately based on this kind of regional activities. This paper is partly based on Task Force activities organized in the EA-RTM In this paper, we discuss the basic idea of Engineering Ethics, role of Engineering, comparative study between US and Japan, issues to harmonize to cultures, so that we should be able to foster better engineers with high ethical standard to establish sustainable development for the future technologysupported society. 2. Role of Engineering For discussing issues on Engineering Ethics as well as its education, a shared understanding on the basic idea of Engineering, its social roles and cultural background of society are needed, since each country has its own history of Engineering. For better international collaboration, understanding about differences in addition to similarities is important. In this paper, the basic idea of Engineering and its role to the society are outlined for further discussion. Note that the discussion is highlighted on some differences between Japan and UK since the history of Engineering education of Japan was created by the Engineering educator, Henry Dyer, of UK about 140 years ago. The Engineering education of Japan retains some basic ideas still now and they characterize the Japanese way of Engineering and the Engineer's role in Japan. According to a

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report Hemy Dyer was disappointed by the British way of Engineering education and had a dream to establish the ideal model of Engineering education in Japan when he accepted the invitation by the newly formed government of Japan, just after the Meiji Restoration. According to my understanding, modern Engineering was initiated in U.K., where an original steam engine was invented around 1712 by Thomas Newcomen. About fifty years later James Watt established a new mechanism of a steam engine with high efficiency around 1865. He invented a general-purpose engine using it by means of crank shaft mechanisms, which introduced the first Industrial Revolution in early 19th century. Unfortunately, however, the British higher education in Science and Technology shifted to Science afterwards and Engineering education was not successfully established in the UK. Hemy Dyer was invited in such a situation by the government of Japan. The Faculty of Engineering of Tokyo Imperial University was founded by him, incorporating a new framework on Engineering education, which was a suitable integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and practice. The Japanese translation of Engineering was defined as "Kogaku" at that time. The direct translation of it is "Engineering Science", not Engineering in the British sense. Because of improper translation, Engineering was understood as one of the Sciences in Japan. Engineering education in Japan has been fostering many creative Engineers who contributed in developing modern manufacturing industry in Japan woridng in R&D, design, production and service in the industry of Japan. Therefore, in the Japanese manufacturing industry, R&D, design, production, and maintenance are connected seamlessly within a company, and the movement of employees from section to section is smooth. For example, a developer of a new technology may move to the design section to design a new product by means of it, then move to the marketing section to support sales from a developer and designer's points of view, and return to the R&D section with new knowledge extracted from experience in sales activities for further development. The rapid progress after World War II is known as the "Japan miracle". It could be achieved by the Japanese way of Engineering and Engineering Education, supported by Japanese traditional culture of diligence. The world's highest quality of manufacturing of Japan established in this background. The major roles of engineers in the Japanese industry should be R&D and design. In contrast, in the UK those seem to be production and service. It is well recognized in Japan that engineers' social status is relatively high and their role is very important to sustain a modern technology-based society. However, it looks not similar in European countries. According to a UK report

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the social status of engineers seems to be unfairly low in UK because of the improper understanding of the role of engineering as well as engineers by the public [2]. One of the important subjects of the Royal Academy of Engineering seems to be upgradation. On the other hand, a major objective of the Washington accord is to improve engineer's quality in an international framework [4]. The roles of Engineers are not clearly understood by the public in Japan due to the confused definitions of Engineering and Technology, as well as Engineers and Technicians. These confusions seem to be caused by the improper translation of the term "Engineering" to "Kogaku (Engineering Science)" in the early stage of the history of modem science and technology of Japan in the Meiji era as mentioned above [3]. It should be stressed that this unique history of engineering education resulted in the high quality of industry of Japan. Typical definitions and differences are outlined in the following. RAE's definition [2]: Science is the body of, and quest for, fundamental knowledge and understanding of all things natural and man-made; their structure, properties, and how they behave. Technology is an enabling package of knowledge, devices, systems, processes, and other technologies, created for a specific purpose. Engineering is the knowledge required, and the process applied, to conceive, design, make, build, operate, sustain, recycle or retire, something of significant technical content for a specified purpose. NAE's definition [5]: "Engineering has been defined in many ways. It is often referred to as the "application of science" because engineers take abstract ideas and build tangible products from them. Another definition is "design under constraint," because to "engineer" a product means to construct it in such a way that it will do exactly what you want it to, without any unexpected consequences." Typical definitions of Engineering and Technology in Japan [3] appear in typical Japanese dictionaries: Engineering (Kogaku) is a discipline of the research on items of industry. Technology Gijutsu) is 1) skill, technique, or 2) means to apply theories to practice. Engineer (Gijyutusha) is a person who uses the skill as profession. Engineering is placed between Science and Technology. Engineering is the technology which is formed into the academic discipline. In addition, Technology (Tekunoroji) is "kagakugijutsu" (Science-andTechnology), an academic discipline developed in U.S.A, and refers to wider semantics than respective Technology and Engineering. (Note that the above explanations in English are direct translations from Japanese expressions, which might result in further confusions.) According to the definition by RAE, the role of Engineering does not cover R&D, which plays a major role in Japan. UK's dilemma is expressed in their

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report as the following example [2]: "Although engineering has a poor image, technology and design do not. For this reason many universities, particularly the newer ones, are now naming courses leaving out the word engineering, using design and technology instead; naming the activity not the discipline. By so doing they are attracting students." "Renaming a course "Multi-media Technology and Design" from "Electronic Engineering" has resulted in many more applicants of a higher standard. The content of the course has remained unchanged." NAE's definition is much more positive and creative, where the role of R&D has the highest priority. Social status of engineering as well as engineers should be higher in US. Research

Development

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Fig. 1 An image of Science, Technology and Engineering and their relationships.

Figure 1 shows the typical understanding of Science, Engineering, Technology and Technique, and their relationships. As shown in the figure, the positions of Engineering and Technology are totally different. In addition, the proper translation of "Kogaku" and "Kogakusha" might be "engineering science" and "engineering scientists" respectively. As discussed above the Japanese definitions of engineering, technologies and techniques are confused with each other and are different from those of both UK and USA. JABEE's committee tried to reconstruct the concepts of key terms in the process of establishment, so that the understanding in Japan should be fitted to so-called the

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global standard [6]. The concepts of technology as well as technologists, however, seem to be stilI unclear in Japan. The committee decided the name of the organization without the term "technology". Discussions on engineering from the point of views of a life-long distance education are in [3]. Grade

Name

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Fig. 2 Engineering professions and their roles in Japan.

By the way, ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) was established by U.S in such a strategy [7]. JABEE (Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education) that was established in 1999 was admitted to join the group of the Washington accord-agreement countries so that Engineering Education of Japan should meet international standard and graduates are expected to work as licensed engineers, i.e., Professional Engineers, in internationalized engineering fields with high professional quality as well as ethical standard, as a first non-English country recently. Figure 2 shows typical grades of engineering professions and their roles. Since the social status of engineers are historically high in Japan, a variety of professions from university professors to service technicians would like to proudly say "I am an engineer". This is another issue in keeping engineer's morale high in a harder situation in the era of technology-oriented society. 3. What is Engineering Ethics? In short, the objective of Engineering is to contribute to the sustainable development of Quality-of-Life for the human-beings of the society by

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appropriate application of Technology. In the advanced-technology-oriented society in the 21 st century Engineers are required to behave as professions at the highest ethical standard with rich professional knowledge and experiences. According to Heinz Luegenbiehl, the basic idea of Engineering Ethics is defined as follows [8]: "Engineering ethics is the application of moral principles and professional standards to situations encountered by professionals in the practice of engineering." On the other hand, from a practical point of view, Engineering Ethics has four objectives in daily activities of engineering, which are: - Prevention of injuries, accidents and disasters caused by technology, - Prevention of destruction of environment caused by technology, - Prevention of social disorder caused by technology, and - Improvement of integrity and reputation of engineers. Codes of Engineering Ethics are established by many major associations and academic societies such as IEEE, ABET in USA, IEICE, IPSJ, JAME in Japan, and so on. In principle, the Code of Engineering Ethics is the declaration to the society by engineers and their sense of responsibility, and the association declares it by representing the member engineers. However, this declaration does not require members' obligation of compliance. Therefore, Engineering Ethics is understood as introducing an association's stance to the society, at least in Japan. The society which is represented by the government is requested to assist engineers to perform according to the code. The so-called "whistle-blowing law" is an example of society's measures of assistance. As mentioned before, EARTM established the declaration of Asian engineers' Engineering Ethics with an attachment of "Asian engineers' guideline of ethics" as shown in Figure 3 [1]. As a member of the taskforce on establishing the declaration, expect that it will help in spreading Engineering Ethics and the promotion of engineering education on ethics in Asia. The declaration is definitely meaningful in the early stage of promotion and for understanding the current situation in the activities regarding Engineering Ethics. The next stage would be to establish the Code of Ethics by engineering associations in Asia respectively, since the details of codes should be suited to the respective domains of Engineering. The following discussion will help in designing the code of ethics in the respective fields of Engineering.

114 Asian Engin~rs'

Guid~lin~

of Erhics

We. the Chinese Academy of Eng~ering. the Engineering Acaderl1y of Jap3IL and the National Academy of Engin=i1lg of Korea. in recognizing an inJporrant role of engineering technologies for the quality ofhulllan life and environmental SIl'itainability. in cherishirlg the Asian cultural beritage of harmonious living with neighboring people and n.1ture, in accepting the obligation of individual engiJ:I=s to uphold the integrity. honor. and dignity of the engineering profession by being honest and unpartial and serving \\ith fidelity their employer;. clients. and the public. do hereby urge Asian engineering societies 10 guide members to commil themselves to the highest ethical and professional CondllCl. To achieve this commitment. the Asian engineers shall: L

2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. S.

9.

10. 11.

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Accept re5pOlISibility in making engineering decisions consistent "lth the safety, health and welfare of the public. and disclose all relevant infonl1ation concerning public safety. health. welf.1re. and ,uslainable global de\'elopmenl in canying out u-rever>ible ci\u engiueering work of long-leon and large-scale in nature. Act as faithful agents or trustees in business or professional matters for each employer or client. pro\ided thaI such actions conform 10 other parts of this guideline. Disclose all knO\\n or potential conflicts of interest that could influence or appear to influence tbeir Judgment or the quality of their services. Be honest and tnl>tworthy in stating clainlS or estimates based on available data. Perform work III compliance willi applicable laws. ordinances. rules and regulations. contracts. and otbe.- stand.1fds. Honor property rights including copyright and patent and gi\'e proper credit for intellectual property. Seek, accept and offer honest professional critici>Jll, properly credit others for their contributions and never claim credit for work not done. Be bonest and fonhright about any limitations of experience and edl,lcation and live up to 0\\11 beliefs and conscience. Continue developing rele\'3n! knowledge. skill. and ex-pertise throughout careers and contribme to the improvement of engineering as a discipline. Oppose prejudice and discriminati\'e treatment with respect 10 sex. religion. nation.l1 or etllllical origlll, age, sexual preference. color. physical or mental dis.1bility. Give due effort to the need to achieve sustainable development and conserve and restore the producti\'e capacity of the earth Promote IlllinL11 l!llderstanding and solidarity amollg Asian engineers aruKolltribme to the amicable relalionships among Asian coWltries.

Fig. 3 Attachment of the declaration of Asian Engineering Ethics by EA-RTM.

Figures 4 and 5 show typical items that appeared in the typical codes of Engineering Ethics and also the differences between associations. As shown in these figures, several items are fundamental which are common to all situations of engineering tasks by all engineers. The fundamental items include "paramount of safety, health and welfare", "integrity, honor and dignity", "honesty, impartiality and fidelity", "compliance", "competence, prestige and reputation", and "professional development". While, "intellectual property" appears in such associations as IT-related and technology-oriented, where copyright in addition to patent-right are the most important issues. The item of "historical heritage" is another example to appear in an association of Civil Engineering, where considerable management of construction is required to protect the historical heritage against destruction.

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Fig. 4 Typical items that appeared in typical codes of engineering ethics.

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paramount of safety, health, and welfare (• • . 14t11:. ~i:.ilj\';I integrity, honor. and dignity (j!fi\, :gJf, .15) honesty, impartiality, and fidelity (!ElL 1l'l', fe~) competence, prestige, and reputation (~:n. :g~. Hili) compliance (:!J.I~t)1!'lf) professional development (:t:.:iIlilfIt)

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intelligent property rights (j;!J89I'1i:fj~l¥.il) disclosing relevant information IlilHI!Jl!!;Y:) peaceful use limitation PHlllillllltlli:) expressing opinions based on beliefs and conscience (IN).. ~ tr) expressing opinions based on data (.lit.!l) sustaining global environment (It!!,*IIl.tft~) rejecting bribery UiliIlMihl:.} wol1ting within the area of 90mpetence (WI"l*-8ii'Hli:) wol1ting based on specialized expertise regardless of affiliation (lfi~jI) acting as faithful trustees (~;(J11ifr) avoiding conflicts of interest (l)}i>lmll!.: supporting the discipline (lfll'l'l1xli) mutual understanding of cultures : ItJ tl. 11: i t:;l!l ~:

Addihonal items

ensuring technical quality (.lUll ff:1li) historical heritage c~it;:iI.iI'l¥.ff) treating fairly all persons ()..f1~f!t1}:qr.) avoiding injuring others (fl!!;ft~1!t¥.dJ improving our technical competence (.tJ!~:nrnJ.t) helping colleagues (fiillfixli)

Fig. 5 Grouping of items that appeared in typical codes of engineering ethics.

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It should be noted that the item of "intelligent property" is included in the "Asian engineers' guideline of ethics" as shown in Figure 3 following the request of EAJ. This is because "intellectual property" is not yet commonly understood in the developing countries in Asia. Moreover, serious violations happen in international as well as domestic trade and commerce. Japan is collaborating in solving these problems as well as promoting education and the formulation of organizational measures. It has also appealed to WTO in cooperation with USA and EU. Appropriate measures to protect violations encourage engineers as weII as companies to try to invent new technologies and to produce new contents with calculated risk, which results in the sustainable development of a knowledgeintensive society. Therefore, intellectual property is one of the key issues of Engineering Ethics in an international framework in the 21 sl Century. It should be noted that copyright protection is a serious matter in promoting Internet-based distance learning that is one of the powerful measures in Engineering education in the global era [3]. 4. Education of Engineering Ethics - A Comparative Study

After the defeat in World War II the traditional culture as well as the social systems of Japan were negatively evaluated and reconstructed mainly with the influence of USA. However, it is difficult to change the traditional culture. Today, Japan is in the situation of mixture of a traditional culture and imported culture. The idea of morality of human-beings is inevitably based on the traditional culture. Engineering Ethics should harmonize with it if we expect that it will function naturally and effectively. From this point of view, the current situation of Japan in promoting Engineering Ethics which was established in USA seems not appropriate, and some other new strategy should be considered. The Science Council of Japan and other major engineering associations of Japan established the Codes of Ethics in the 90's based on U.S codes of ethics. Therefore, most items appearing in those codes are similar to those of U.S. The texts are similar to those of US in the declaration of the fundamental canon. The texts for other items are carefully designed to meet the engineering role in Japan in keeping with the idea of the American model. These should be suitable for the first stage. In this paper, I would propose to consider cultural issues in revising them for the second stage. This is because the cultural background of Japan is largely different from that of US, and the current Codes of Engineering Ethics are difficult for engineers in Japan. However, this paper does not propose a concrete idea. Luegenbiehl stresses that "at the foundation of the American engineering ethics is an assumption of moral or professional autonomy which

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requires engineers to be independent decision-makers who have the ability to exercise their professional authority despite possible pressures from institutional superiors or non-engineering colleagues." [8]. Education on Engineering Ethics seems to be performed inadequately according to Keith Schimmel [9] even in the US. In the accreditation process by ABET, mostly the outcomes of education on the quality of problem-solving performance seem to be evaluated. The education of engineering ethics would be reviewed secondly. According to the research by Stephan [10], 80% of engineering graduates are not requested to take courses on ethics. Only 16% of the university and 7% of the graduates must take the subjects on ethics education. Moreover, the majority do not opt for engineering ethics but philosophies, which is included in the general education on religion. After all, engineering ethics education has not been imparted at engineering departments of universities in the United States. It seems that engineering teachers are not interested in the engineering ethics education. According to a US watcher in this field of Japan, the situation might be progressing in the education of Engineering Ethics. For example, IEEE seems to organize a competition of students on solving problems regarding IEEE Code of Ethics in a controlled situation. While in Japan, the education of Engineering Ethics becomes active by the leadership of JABEE (Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education). According to the recent data, more than ten textbooks on Engineering Ethics are published in Japanese, which include some translated versions and more original texts written by Japanese educators. JABEE is managing the accreditation of engineering education programs, and education of Engineering Ethics is strongly promoted in this framework. Currently, 84 engineering programs are accredited by JABEE in Japan, and the number is increasing year by year. The number of accredited programs by department are as follows [6]: Agricultural Engineering: 5 programs Agricultural Science and Engineering: 3 programs Architecture and Building Engineering: 4 programs Biochemical, Biological and Biophysical Engineering: 1 program Chemical & Chemistry-Related Engineering: 7 programs Civil Engineering: 10 programs Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering: 7 programs Engineering Physics and Applied Physics: 1 program Environmental Engineering: 1 program Forest Engineering: 3 programs General Engineering: 17 programs Industrial Engineering and Management: 2 programs Information Engineering: 3 programs

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Materials and Metallurgical Engineering: 3 programs Mechanical Engineering: 15 programs Resources and Geological Engineering: 2 programs Cultural issues would be discussed in respective courses based on lecturer's personal consideration in these programs. Investigation on this issue is not reported yet. Issues of Engineering Ethics education in an engineering curriculum include textbooks, teaching materials and teaching method. The number of textbooks has been increasing in the last seven years in Japan. However, the subjects are limited and deeper discussions do not seem to have been designed yet. The teaching materials are required to be used as supplements to the texts. Therefore, the teaching materials should be edited with careful consideration of real cases extracted from real accidents, hazards and disorders that have occurred in the performance of engineers' tasks in the society. In addition, the cases should be analyzed to investigate causes, and based on the analysis suitable measures for education need to be taken. From this point of view there exist serious barriers in Japan. The investigations are performed by government organizations, and lawbased judgements are done by courts. The TV companies report related information from their points of view through media by means of video records. These investigations, analyses and videos are informative and useful for research and education. However, detailed data are not disclosed in Japan. Videos are difficult to use in education due to the Copyright Law of Japan. As a result, typical cases are referenced from US cases with deeper analysis by US educators. It should be stressed that US examples with analyses by US educators are not realistic for Japanese students. In addition details of engineering ethics as well as engineer's situation are slightly different within Japan. The sharing of understanding for better education is required. In order to exchange useful information and to perform strategic development of education of Engineering Ethics, Inter-Association Council of Engineering Ethics (IACEE) was established in 2002. The current members of the council consist of twelve as in the following: Japan Society of Civil Engineers (ISCE) The Institution of Professional Engineers, Japan (IPSJ) Atomic Energy Society of Japan (AESJ) The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ) The Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ)

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The Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) Japanese Society for Engineering Education (JSEE) Architectural Institute of Japan (AU) The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (SCEJ) 5. Humanities Education - A Comparative Study Education of Engineering Ethics should be incorporated in a curriculum of engineering education as mentioned above. According to the analysis of accidents and illegal disorders, many cases are not due to a lack of the knowledge on Engineering Ethics but due to "intensive illegal conducts" that must be caused by "moral hazard". Morals should be included as part of humanities education from when people are infants in the kindergarten and at home. There should be a role of religion as well. Education of Engineering Ethics to foster engineering professions should be accomplished on this base. In this regard the infant education of Japan and US seem to have contrastive characteristics, which are reflected by traditional cultures respectively. The outline is discussed in the following. Note that the discussion in this paper is to propose further study for cultural aspects in promoting expanded concepts for internationalization of Engineering Ethics and its education in a framework of an international collaboration in an era of cultural mix in the 21st century, especially in East Asia. As mentioned above, in the basic philosophy of US, current Engineering Ethics desires "autonomy" for engineers and that is suited to the culture and social system of the United States. Therefore, it is naturally understood that the Code of Engineering Ethics established in the United States doesn't suit a country where the culture and the social system are different [3]. It is interesting to note that according to the report by Christelle Didier there exists no such code of engineering ethics in France [11]. This is because the title of an engineer is quite prestigious throughout the history of engineering and its education in France. Considerable measures to keep this have been performed as well in France. The education of children is mainly performed at home as well as in the kindergartens. It should be noted that this kind of education is strongly influenced by the traditional culture. Social systems should be established based on the culture. Engineers perform their roles in such situations. The education of Engineering Ethics in the engineering curriculum at universities must be effective on this base. Ryoko Tsuneyoshi's report gives us interesting suggestions in this regard [12]. Figure 6 summarizes a comparative study on this issue between US and Japan.

120 U.S.A Training of logical thinking ability Individual action and independence The ability is a natural gift. (giftedness) Human nature as fundamentally evil (Wickedness theory)

Japan Training of empathy ability Group action and cooperation Effort than a capability Human nature as fundamentally good

Fig. 6 Comparison about humanity education between Japan and USA.

As highlighted in the figure, Japanese children's education is based on the view of "human nature as fundamentally good". In contrast, the American education is based on the view of "human nature is basically bad", i.e., evil. As noted already, Japanese culture is characterized by "harmony and cooperation" teamwork based on empathy and has been fundamentally kept in every situation at home, at school, in company, and so on. This is because Japan is an island country with quite limited resources for living. In addition, Japan has been influenced by the culture Qf Confucianism over almost 1800 years of history. United States seems to be characterized from Japanese point of view as a lawsuit society, and insists on individual rights and fights over the victory or defeat by trial. Self assertiveness is an important capability. The ability to act independently is a virtue. It seems therefore natural that power is used to foster an ability to outpace the competition. On the other hand, in Japan, modesty is a virtue in order to defend the order of the society, and the ability to think from other party's point of view and the importance of the group-based actions, are included in various ways. Being cooperative is indispensable. Moreover, spiritual values have been respected more than material value in history. Strong loyalty to the organization is a mark of the trust between enterprise and employees. This means that compliance should be suitable to engineers who work as employees. In this framework the Code of Conduct would be effectively functioning in Japan as mentioned already. Items which appear in the Code of Conduct also appear in the Code of Engineering Ethics. The former is managed by the compliance management system of the enterprise, the latter, by an engineer independently.

6. Culture and Social System Engineering Ethics does not function adequately if it does not harmonize with the traditional culture and social system. As mentioned above the basic idea of so-called American model of Engineering Ethics is based on American culture closely and that the Code of Ethics is supported by the social system. I think that

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there exists a general framework among Engineering Ethics, Code of Ethics, culture and social system. Figure 7 shows an abstracted view of the framework. An engineer performs daily duties and achieves professional ability in solving problems according to a high quality of an engineering standard. At the same time, the engineer is required to comply with the social rules and regulations at the highest ethical standard. It should be noted that violations of laws lead to arrests, while violations of codes of ethics are not. However, the violations of ethics must result in losing social trust that results in losing his position in his profession. Sustainable development of Quality of Life

C

Engineering pr.octice

Laws ....

II

Social system

Code of Ethics Engineering quality and Standards (Capitalism, Socialism, etc.)

~

Ethics/Moral

~ Religion & Culture

(Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, etc.)

Fig. 7 Culture and social systems in engineering practice.

Figure 8 illustrates cultural difference between U.S., Japan, China, Korea and ASEAN. U.S. is an autonomy-directed country, and in contrast China is an order-oriented country. Autonomy is based on the idea of Democracy and freecompetition, while order is based on strong control under socialism. Engineers' self-responsibility would be restricted by the national order in China. Instead, a suitable model that would exist for China. Japan and Korea is located in the middle in this axis. It should be noted that the traditional culture of Japan and Korea is largely influenced by ancient China, i.e., Confucianism. China's history of Socialism is not so long, and the idea of Confucianism would exist for the base of current China. ASEAN, that is a community consisting of ten East-Asia countries, is another group of nations based on the mixed cultures of religions. There seems to exist so-called "Asian common culture" in the greater East-Asia

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because the culture would be formed under the influence of natural environment in its nature, and East-Asian countries are located in the Asia-monsoon region. Thus East-Asian countries have good possibilities of collaboration in Engineering education with careful consideration on Engineering Ethics. Intelligent Property is one of key issues in this collaboration, since the 21st Century is "knowledge-based" century and IP is the base for the sustainable development of "technology-oriented" society.

Order ~~

Cooperation - - - Autonomy t~~ §ft

Fig. 8 An image of difference of cultures.

7. Conclusion

Engineering supports the sustainable development of the society. The role of Engineering is undoubtedly increasing in this situation. Therefore, the social responsibility of engineers becomes important. The prevention of injury, accidents and disasters caused by technology, as well as prevention of destruction of a social order caused by technology, are important social subjects for "technology-oriented global society" in the 21st Century. This paper has discussed key issues in this regard that include concepts of Engineering, role of Engineering, basic idea of Engineering Ethics, cultural analysis of Code of Engineering Ethics and its management, international collaboration for solving problems for our sustainable future. The analysis of differences in traditional cultures and historical backgrounds between Japan and UK, Japan and US, Japan and Asian countries has highlighted issues to be solved by international collaboration. The so-called American model of Codes of Engineering Ethics should help us in these efforts. E-Learning platform is quite useful to maintain a variety of education content on Engineering Ethics gathered from collaborative

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organizations and for global sharing [3, 17]. CAETS is expected to take a leadership in accomplishing the goal. Acknowledgement

The author would like to express his sincere thanks to the members of Engineering and the Public Task Force (E&P TF) of EAJ, and the members of the RTM TF of CAE, NAEK and EAJ, for their considerable and productive discussions, and for the members of IACEE for their interesting discussions from a variety of views on Engineering Ethics and Education in Japan. These discussions helped in the preparation of this paper. References

1. http://www.eaj.or.jplWe1come-e.html 2. The Royal Academy of Engineering, The Universe of Engineering - A UK Perspective, The Royal Academy of Engineering, 2000. 3. Haruki Ueno, Internet-Based Distance Learning for Lifelong Engineering Education - A personal view and Issues, Journal of Information and Systems in Education, Vol. 1, No.1, pp. 45-52, 2002. 4. http://www.washingtonaccord.org/ 5. http://www .nae.eduinae/naehome.nsf/weblinksINAEW-4NHME3 ?Open 6. Document 7. http://www.jabee.org/english/ 8. http://www.abet.org/ 9. Heinz C. Luegenbiehl, Themes for an International Code of Engineering Ethics, Proceedings of the 2003 ASEEIWFEO International Colloquium, American Society for Engineering Education, 2003. 10. Keith Schimmel, ABET 2000 - Can Engineering Faculty Teach Ethics? 11. http://engr.calvin.edulces/ceec/schimmel.htm 12. Karl D. Stephan, Is Engineering Ethics Optional?, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Winter 200112002. 14. Christelle Didier, Why There are No Engineering Ethics in France: a Historical Interpretation. 15. http://onlineethics.org/essays/intlldidier.html 16. Ryoko Tsuneyoshi, Comparison of Japan and US of Formation of Humanity -An Invisible Curriculum, Chukoshinsho, in Japanese, 1992. 17. http://www.nicos.co.jp/about/company/compliance/ 18. ABET Engineering Criteria 2000. 19. Haruki Ueno, "Social Status of Engineering and Engineers and Issues of Engineering Ethics", RTM Task Force Report 2003 "Better Engineers, Better Professionals", The Chinese Academy of Engineering, The Academy

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of Engineering of Japan, The National Academy of Engineering of Korea, pp. 33-43, 2003. 20. Haruki Ueno, Issues of Engineering Ethics from Asian Perspectives, East Asia Engineering Academies Round-Table Meeting (EA-RTM) 2004, 2004. 21. Vuthichai Ampornarambeth, Tao Zhang, Ana Hadiana, Nobuo Shimamoto, and Haruki Ueno, A Web-Based e-Learning Platform for Postgraduate Education, Proc. Fifth lASTED International Conference on Web-Based Education, pp. 388-393, 2006.

GLOBALIZATION OF ENGINEERS' ETHICS AND CODE OF CONDUCT DR. C. G KRISHNADAS NAIR

1. Introduction

Engineers play a significant role in the application of science and technology for the growth of human civilization enhancing the quality of life, wealth and welfare. However, the unwise and unethical application of science and technology can lead to harmful effects causing injury to humans, animals, and environment and affect sustainability. It is imperative that engineering education in addition to imparting technical knowledge and skills, must educate engineers on their ethical responsibilities. Engineers' ethical code of conduct should make engineers responsible for preventing harm to society, animals and environment and also to ensure sustainable development. Many professional societies have formulated engineers' ethical code of conduct. However, these do not form part of engineering curricula. Engineering education mostly is concerned with imparting scientific and technical knowledge and skills and does not train engineers to resolve moral dilemmas, pressures from vested interests, and conflicts of interests. With the globalization of business, more and more engineers work in countries other than their home country and face new working environments, with different cultural and religious values, customs, traditions and practices influencing the local moral standards. Professional societies across the world should endeavour to develop an internationally accepted code of ethics for engineers and introduce the same in the engineers' curricula. A common strategy needs to be evolved to certify the competence of engineers and engineering organizations for undertaking professional activity; also a common code of ethics for engineers in the context of globalization of engineering profession, needs to be laid down. 2. General Morality and Engineers' Professional Ethics Human civilizations evolved in different parts ofthe world at different times, and these set their standards of morality. Communities depending on their circumstances modified and adapted their own particular set of rules of conduct. 125

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Religions had a profound influence on setting standards of general morality. Village and tribal chiefs, kings, emperors and various socio-political organizations influenced general morality from time to time. In the modem era, communism, capitalism and liberalism have also made their impacts, so general morality is not standard and universal. General morality appears to be differ from community to community and place to place, although there is a great convergence with respect to the fundamentals. All religions advise human beings to be good-natured and pure in thought and action and be 'GOD-like'. The fundamental moral codes of conduct are really secular and are of virtuous commonsense values. Good personal ethics are developed on the basis of these secular codes. Professional ethics are moral code of conduct as applicable to persons belonging to a particular profession, for example, engineering. Professionals are empowered with knowledge and skills and training in providing value addition to society in the form of products and services. This empowerment can also be misused, adversely affecting the well-being of others, society and environment. Hence professionals need to be regulated by ethical standards. These form the codes of professional ethics and are promulgated by each of the professional societies and some times regulated by the State Laws. Most of the professional associations of Engineers across the world that have published engineers' code of ethics emphasize engineers' paramount responsibility as protecting human beings and human society from the harmful effects of technology. Also they to do so while fulfilling their professional obligation of adding value to society and enabling the advancement of civilization. Some do not emphasize the protection of animals and environment. Engineers must be responsible environmentalists. The engineer's work (application of technology) is essential for the progress and growth of our civilization, bringing comfort and prosperity. But it can also lead to environmental problems. For example, the design and execution of a hydroelectric project may destroy forests. An irrigation project may destroy forests, land and adversely affect the eco-system. The design and execution of a fertilizer plant, very much needed for improving agricultural yield and eradication of poverty, may cause pollution to the neighboring environment. The mining of coal, minerals and metals, very much needed for industrial growth, will also disturb the local eco-system and destroy forests. Automobile exhausts continuously poison the air. Yet can we live without automobiles, without electricity, without coal, minerals, metals, chemical & fertilizers, dams and irrigation? While technology is needed for progress, and in the process it causes environmental issues, technology can also be used to reduce! eliminate the

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environmental problems. For example, the poisonous gaseous emissions from the automobile engine exhaust can be controlled by design improvements of the engine and change of fuel. The pollutants from industries can be neutralized by chemical treatments and disposed. The lost forests can be regenerated. Engineers, while implementing technology for progress, must endeavour to design and execute projects, processes, & products in such a way as to eliminate or reduce the threats to environmental integrity. Engineers as private citizens have the responsibility like other citizens to protect the environment from degradation. In addition, as agents of application of technology they have the professional responsibility for protecting the environment from degradation & destruction. Engineers are expected to uphold steadfastly the safety of the environment and the principle of sustainable development. While performing their professional duties, engineers are also required to inform their superiors, employers, and clients of possible harmful consequences to safety, health, and environment as and when their professional judgment and actions are overruled by vested interests. Sustainable development is when technology and resources are used to meet the present needs and aspirations without endangering the opportunities and capabilities to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. The conservation of natural resources and the protection of environment are central to sustainable development. Some people believe that nature is passive and can be exploited for the benefit of human beings. The indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources is against sustainable development and is unethical. The belief that nature is passive is fundamentally wrong. Man is part of nature. Earth with all its living organisms and the inanimate world forms the earth's ecosystem which is like a living organism. In the Indian civilization, Earth is worshipped as Bhoomidevi and the Hindus praise and pray to Mother Earth for nourishing and sustaining us. The Greeks too used to worship earth as the goddess 'Gaia' The 'Gaia Theory', a recent scientific hypothesis, articulates this ancient wisdom and considers earth as a living organism, with all its ecosystems: man, animals, birds, trees and seas and the innumerable bacteria and virus etc as part of this living earth, just like millions of living and dying cells in the human body. As the immune system in the human body, the earth also fights the dangers to its ecosystem, inflicted by human beings. Man is a part of the web of life, this eco-system. Any disturbance to the web is a disturbance to man. If humans exploit or pollute nature indiscriminately beyond nature's capability to regenerate, then its immune system will act and destroy the very cause of irritation that is man himself. Sustainable development is, thus, a fundamental requirement for sustaining human civilization on earth.

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3. Engineer's Professional Career and Growing Ethical Responsibilities Most engineers after their academic course and training start their job at the first level of managerial hierarchy, working as supervisors, process planners, junior engineers, inspection engineers, designers, maintenance, and service engineers. As they advance in career, they take up positions of greater responsibility and authority, the negative impact of wrong decisions! actions and devastation to the society and environment will grow in greater intensity and the size of the affected people and environment will also be enormously larger.

3.1. Engineers as managers The term manager is used in a broad sense to include supervisors and managers of employees, works and projects etc and also management at the higher level such as General Management Board level Executives, CEO's etc. Managers are often concerned with speedy task completion, reducing expenditure and maximizing the profit. There will be temptations for cutting corners with respect to production processes, testing, & quality control, pollution control etc. and compromise on safety at work place. They may direct engineer employees to comply with these demands in the name of loyalty to the organization. This is unfair to the employees and is unethical. Engineer managers are responsible for the ethical conduct of their subordinates and should act as responsible leaders. They should never persuade their subordinates to do what is ethically wrong. They should not hide mistakes! lapses on ethical conduct either committed by them or by their subordinates. However, the emphasis should not be on punishing the people who made the mistake but on correcting the systems to avoid hazards to society and environment. Manager- Engineers are responsible for the safety of the people working with them and they should periodically review the work environment and recommend to higher management for continuously improving safety in the work place and also the safety for the environment. Engineer managers at the corporate level as Directors and CEO's must ensure good Corporate Governance fulfilling their responsibility to the society in addition to other stake holders such as the shareholders, customers, and employees. Their strategy for the growth of the industries! organizations should take into consideration respect to society environment and sustainable development. They must ensure compliance with the statutory provisions with regard to safety, pollution control and anti-corruption measures. They must evolve and publish a code of conduct for all employees and disseminate the same

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through publications and awareness programmes. They must build a corporate culture which will value 'straight talk' and reward integrity and encourage 'dissent with discipline'. Dissent with discipline is the articulation of opposite views without fear of ridicule or reappraisal so that managers and corporate management can get honest opinions from their engineers and experts on the ethical aspects of projects, plans, or actions. In this context they must also institute an appropriate policy for protecting 'Whistle Blowers'.

3.2. Engineers as administrators Administrators have an ethical responsibility to formulate and implement appropriate policies for the ethical conduct of engineers. They must endeavour to ensure good ethical, individual, and corporate conduct and protect society and environment from hazards. They should develop and implement State laws against corruption! bribery, extortion and ensure pollution control. Administrator- engineers who take up administration as a career may also encourage professional societies of engineers to develop a code of conduct and adopt the same at the State level. They should consider their position of power and authority as a position of responsibility and service.

3.3. Engineers as entrepreneurs/employers An engineer as an employer and entrepreneur will be responsible for several employees. In this role as the entrepreneur/ employer, the engineer will have considerable power over people. This power should be used to encourage the ethical conduct of employees. They should not exploit the loyalty of employees to persuade them to act in favor of gains for the employer with adverse effect on the society and environment. For example, over exploitation of ground water to enhance production of soft drinks is against sustainable development. Inadequate measures for ensuring safety and pollution control in order to save expenditure and enhance profit will be at the cost of causing hazard to people and environment. The Engineer-Entrepreneur is in the business to make money and to make profit, but it should not be at the cost of society, environment, and sustainable development. 4. Risks, Safety and Liability

Engineers have a paramount responsibility to protect life and environment from hazards. The risks of hazard and safety in the work place are well recognized and there are statutory provisions in many countries to minimize risk and maximize

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safety. Engineers, managers and owners of business are liable for legal action for violations. Engineers must prepare for dealing effectively and responsibly with issues of risks, safety and liability. Concern for risk and safety has a prominent place in the engineer's professional code of ethics. Engineers must design products and structures which are safe for public to use. Engineers must make the work place, including machines, tools, plant and equipment and processes, safe to avoid injury and harm to health and environment. The maintenance of buildings, machines, plants & equipments vehicles etc must be done in conformity with laid down procedures and engineering standards. Engineers must accept responsibility to make engineering analysis, decisions, and actions consistent with safety, health, and welfare of workers and the public. They should disclose factors which may adversely affect public and environment. Engineers are obliged to inform their superiors, employers, clients and appropriate governmental/public authorities if and when their professional judgment and advice on safety are over ruled exposing the employees, or public, or the environment to risk. Engineers must be ethically responsible for risks. They must keep themselves aware of the risks related to products, processes technology etc and the approaches to the decision on acceptable limits of risks. It is their responsibility to ensure fair play and adhere to professional ethics that focuses on respect to people and environment. As new knowledge and experience are acquired, the acceptable limits of a particular risk may undergo change. Engineers must act responsibly keeping themselves updated on this aspect, and work towards reducing risk through technological innovations.

5. Client Professional Agreements Engineers on their own or employee engineers on behalf of their employer provide design, consultancy, audit and such other professional services. In such cases sensitive/ confidential information provided by the client and information generated by the consultant during the specific work are protected through confidentiality agreements. The engineer's code of ethics requires strict compliance to such agreement. For example such information in the case of one client should not be revealed to another client. The engineer must refuse to break such confidentiality even under threat, or under monetary or other types of inducements. But an engineer's paramount obligation is to the safety of the public and may break confidentiality and reveal to public such information if it will affect the safety and wellbeing of the public.

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6. Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA)lKnow-How Transfer etc. When engineering firms negotiate to collaborate, or purchase know-how of a product information is exchanged on the basis of NDAs. Both parties, and engineers involved are bound to maintain confidentiality of such information exchanged. The Know-how purchased from the licensor should be used only for the license, and it should not be transferred to others unless the rights for transfer to third parties are specifically mentioned in the know-how transfer agreements. Engineers involved in know-how utilization should adhere to the terms and conditions of such agreements, and act as per the intellectual property rights.

7. Intellectual Property Rights Intellectual properties are generated through research, design and development. It may be a product or technology and is protected in many ways such as trade secrets and patents. Most companies make their engineers/scientists to sign agreements by which all such trade secrets and patents, are the properties of the employer, even though these are developed by the employee engineers/ scientists. Even in the case of organization which share the IP rights with the employee inventors/designers, the right to selVtransfer etc vests with the organization, the employee sharing only the sale value and royalties. As per such agreements and also as per code of ethics, engineers are to act with integrity and loyalty to the employer organization in IPR matters. Also, employee engineers will also have access to such vital data and information if they are involved in the application of such inventions/designs/ technologies. Engineers should not reveal such data to others, except with the permission of the IPR holding organization.

8. International Context Different countries and communities may have different values and practices with respect to common morality. This may lead to conflicts in adhering to engineer's professional code of conduct. Some countries pay less to female employees compared to male employees, some discriminate women from men for employment and for holding superior positions. In some countries business relations are built upon and nurtured through personal relations involving social visits, get-togethers, and exchange of gifts. Corruption is prevalent in some countries. Under such circumstances, engineers are sometime confused or misled on their responsible actions in accordance with their professional code of ethics.

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Some recommend questionable compromises on the basis of economic conditions, religious sentiments and cultural traditions and the prevailing levels of corruption which need to be satisfied to get things done. While there is a point for consideration in striking a balance between the extremes, all such compromises cannot be justified, and may be unethical. There can be exceptions to the rule, but those exceptions must be morally justifiable. More and more engineers are working in countries other than their home countries. They are engaged in design, manufacturing, construction, marketing and in other services and management. There is an increasing need for evolving a common code of ethics for engineers which is accepted worldwide as standards of quality such as ISO 9000.

9. Economic Conditions Sometimes the lower economic development of a country is used to justify applications of lower standards for safety, health, and environment compared to economically advanced countries. This prescription is used by some unscrupulous entrepreneurs/ managers and engineers from the advanced countries, to reduce their expenditure and enhance profits and it is clearly unethical. A responsible engineer from an industrially and economically developed country while engaged in a project in a less developed country must aim for the same high standards for safety and environment as in his own country. But if it is an informed consent by the Government and people of the developing country, restrained temporarily due to economic constraints, some flexibility in standards could be accepted. For example automobiles produced / used in many Indian cities now comply with emission standards which are lower than specified in many other countries. But there is a plan to come to world standards of Euro 3 and Euro 4 eventually. While automobile manufacturers from other countries, who set up manufacturing facilities in India, may use this lower standard, it is nobler for these companies to straight away adopt the higher standards just as they comply with, in their home countries. Similar relaxations may be made with respect to an irrigation project or a hydroelectric project, a fertilizer plant etc on a cost-benefit! utilitarian approach. But it must be a conscious decision of the Government and people of the concerned country, with a plan for revising the standard at a future date.

10. Cultural Values, Traditions, and Practices Engineers working in foreign country with different cultural values, traditions, and practices may have difficulties in deciding on ethical issues and responsible

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professional conduct as they would in their own country. Giving and accepting gifts and building business relations based on personal relations is a tradition and practice in some countries. Even, modem management education emphasizes the need for networking with business associates for mutually rewarding strategic relations. However the engineers 'code of ethics in many countries generally prohibit giving and accepting gifts with respect to one's vendors and customers, and consider it a mild form of bribe. Similarly, consuming alcohol is strictly prohibited at all times in some countries. The engineer's code of ethics does not permit working under intoxication, and consuming alcohol at work place. But in some countries consuming alcohol during long business lunch sessions or while entertaining or being entertained by business associate is a practice. In such cases, the engineer must try and adhere to the engineer's code of ethics, and respect the values and practice of the country in which he works, as long as it does not adversely affect others. However, this should not be taken to the extreme and give/ accept bribes and then justifying that it is a ' fee' and is practiced in the country. It is unethical and is a crime against the people of that country.

11. Engineer's Rights The Engineer's professional responsibility to adhere to professional ethics must be supported by legal and moral rights. Responsibility without authority and legal rights and recognition by all concerned will be difficult to implement. All concerned include the government, society, employers, colleagues and engineers professional associations. Engineers must be provided not only legal protection, but also financial and social protection against vengeful action by vested interests, Engineers' rights with respect to professional responsibility include: ~ ~

~ ~

~ ~

Right of refusal to involve directly or indirectly in activity in- violation of professional ethics Right of professional judgment to advise/inform all concerned. Right of speaking, writing and acting in public interest, in accordance with engineers' professional ethics. Right to protect client and employer confidentiality obligations, without sacrificing public interest. Right to professional recognition and to engage in activities of engineers professional associations Right to protect the environment and the public from harmful effects of technology in general and more specifically from own, employers and client's work.

134 ~

~

Right for legal, financial, and professional protection from threats, coercion, attacks, retribution, loss of job and such other activities by clients, employers and their agents. Right for claiming support in respect of the above from public, the state and engineers professional associations.

12. Roles of Professional Associations Professional societies advance and promote their individual professions, protect the interests of their members and their image in the society, and ensure that the members are competent to undertake their professional activities, and perform responsibly following a strict code of ethics. Since there are various disciplines of engineering and there are associations/societies for each such discipline, they should evolve a common code of ethics. Professional societies have a responsibility in developing and promoting the practice of professional ethics. Ethical conduct by engineers and employers can be encouraged through awareness and motivational (commitment) workshops, rewards and punishments. Punishment to enforce ethical conduct has limitations as far as Professional associations are concerned, because the major punishments for ethical violations which can be imposed by the professional associations are only suspension or expulsion from the association's membership. However, membership in a professional association is not mandatory for engineers to be employed. Hence such punitive actions will not have an impact on the employability and professional activities of the suspended/expelled member. Professional Associations of Engineers may have to consider making it a· statutory requirement (by law) for engineers to be registered with the respective association as for example a "charted engineer" before they can practice as a professional. This is being done in other professions, such as for lawyers and medical doctors. Professional associations may institute awards for engineers and employers for exemplary ethical conduct. Professional societies should provide moral, physical and financial support to engineers who are unfairly treated by their unscrupulous managers/employers for adhering to high ethical standards. Professional societies can playa major role in educating the public on the risks and benefits of new technologies and on safe practices, and sustainable development, etc. Professional societies must also interact with similar societies of other countries and endeavour to develop common code of ethics applicable internationally.

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13. Conclusions Engineers' professional assocIatIOns across the world should develop an internationally accepted professional code of ethics for engineers. Such associations should take into account the increasing concern for the environment and sustainable development. Such associations should facilitate engineers to be certified as per internationally laid down and recognized standards, enabling their global acceptance for professional practice/employment. Such associations should cover not only engineers responsibility towards society and environment but also professional responsibility towards the employer, the share holders, the employees, and customers, and compliance with client professional confidentiality agreements, non disclosure agreements, intellectual property rights, license and other contractual agreements in the international context. Clear guidance should be included with respective engineers' compliance with the code of ethics. At the same time, the code should respect the local cultural, traditional values, customs and the aspirations of the economically and industrially developing countries. The code of conduct should provide for the certified engineers, legal and financial support against unfair treatment by unscrupulous vested interests for adhering to the prescribed ethical and moral standards.

A PERSPECTIVE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN

CANADA C. (RA VI) RA VINDRAN

Canadian Academy of Engineering

Abstract Accreditation of Canadian undergraduate engineering programs is driven by the associations regulating the profession. Rapid technological advances and globalization have triggered a debate on incorporating the necessary professional skills into engineering curriculum. Engineering education in Canada is responsive to these changes. This paper presents a perspective of this discussion, and does not reflect any official position or policy of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE).

In Canada, the professional engineers of the nation establish the standards of engineering education. The regulation of the engineering profession is a provincial responsibility. The provincial associations of professional engineers have the mandate given to them by the provincial governments, to set the standards of knowledge and skill for practice of the engineering profession and to ensure that these standards have been achieved. The provincial associations delegated their authority to accredit engineering programs at the universities to the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB). The CEAB was established in 1965 by the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE, recently renamed as Engineers Canada), an apex body of the provincial and territorial associations. CEAB' s role is to accredit Canadian undergraduate programs that meet or exceed education standards acceptable for professional engineering standards in Canada. CEAB' s mandate also covers reviewing and assessing the accreditation practices of boards assessing programs of institutions in other countries, with a view to enabling Engineers Canada to sign mutual recognition agreements with those countries. There are 38 institutions offering accredited engineering programs. There are over 240 accredited engineering programs in Canada with 70 + different areas of study. To be accredited by the CAEB, undergraduate university programs in Canada must contain not only mathematics, science and 136

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engineering, but they must develop communication skills and an understanding of the environmental, cultural and social impacts of engineering on society and the concept of sustainable development. The criteria for accreditation are intended to identify those programs that develop an individual's ability to use appropriate knowledge and information to convert, utilize and manage resources optimally through effective analysis, interpretation and decision-making. This ability is essential to the design process that characterizes the practice of engineering. The accredited programs are expected to instill creativity and adaptability to ensure students' awareness of the roles and responsibilities of an engineer, engineering's impact on society and the need for an engineer to function as a member of a multi-disciplinary team. The process of accreditation places emphasis on the quality of students, academic staff, support staff and educational facilities. The accreditation visit is undertaken at the invitation of a particular institution and with the concurrence of the appropriate provincial association. The visiting team includes a chair (typically a member of the CEAB) and a visitor for each program. In preparation for the visit, the CEAB details all the documentation required for review during the visit. Many factors are considered by the visiting team. These include intellectual atmosphere and morale, professional attitude and quality of staff and students. The team interviews the senior administration of the university, faculty members, students and support staff in groups or as individuals. Laboratories, libraries, student reports, tests, exams and theses are reviewed for quality. The perceived strengths and weaknesses, areas of conformance to and deviation from CEAB criteria, matters of concern and suggestions for improvement are important elements of the Visit Report, usually provided to the CEAB by the team within a month of the visit. The decision of the CEAB is conveyed to the Dean and President. Canada has high standards in engineering education, and these standards are maintained across the nation through a systematic process. These are reviewed frequently, with a view to ensure currency in engineering knowledge and practice and relevance to changing socio-economic and other conditions. Engineering Education has to integrate the ongoing phenomenon of globalization into the programs, and this is part of ongoing discussion among professional engineers in Canada. Increased migration of engineers, the new world order, open markets, multinational corporations with dispersed design, manufacturing and research facilities in foreign countries and rapid e-based communications are some of the factors in such a phenomenon. The engineer of

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the 21 51 century is often highly mobile, with education and experience from different countries, multilingual, multicultural and finally, expertise in more than one discipline. The engineering curricula are often developed with focus on national, and sometimes regional issues. Often, focus, quality and evaluation methods between the engineering schools differ, even within a country. However, in the process of reciprocity in recognizing engineering qualifications (education and experience), the specific core courses may be identified for assessing equivalence. The engineering curriculum of the 21st century has to incorporate professional skills ("soft skills") expected of the Globalized Engineer. With phenomenal increase in engineering knowledge (and hence technical components of engineering curriculum), it is indeed difficult to incorporate such skills in a 4year engineering program. A strong foundation in basic science with good communication skills enables an engineer to be innovative, entrepreneurial and global. There is an ongoing discussion in Canada on the curriculum needed to provide a Global Engineering Education. Indeed an appropriate combination of basic sciences, engineering core courses (with design/innovation component in each course), engineering-related courses (with focus on entrepreneurship, ethics, energy, ecology, environment and public policy) and options in liberal arts courses will be required in a globalized engineering curriculum. Equally important, the engineering programs need to promote internships (national and international) with vigour. Perhaps, a 5-year engineering honours program incorporating one year of these professional skills and internship (as different from the regular 4-year program) can result in a globalized engineer of the 21st century. Thus, the engineering student may choose one of these programs. Engineers are increasingly expected to be excellent communicators. They have societal responsibility of engaging in public policy debates involving engineering issues of local, national and global impact - issues involving energy options, environment, waste management and disposal, infrastructure development etc. These issues have ethical, economic, biological and environmental impact, often across the continents. The Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) has been at the forefront by facilitating or participating in public policy discussions. The Academy fulfills its mission in many ways. These include enabling an increased awareness of the role of engineering in society, speaking out with an independent voice on issues relevant to engineering in Canada and abroad and advising on engineering education, research, development and innovation. Over the past decade, CAE has developed task force reports on technological entrepreneurship and

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engineering, engineering education, engineering research and energy pathways with focus on Canada. Summary

Canada is one of the few countries in the world where the accreditation process for engineering program is driven by the regulators. There is an ongoing debate on how to achieve reciprocity with other jurisdictions in the world to facilitate globalization of engineering. In addition, there is an increasing demand by the employers for a higher level of professional skills from engineering graduates. It is a challenge for the educators to achieve this while ensuring the ever-increasing technical component of education. References 1. Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board - Accreditation Criteria and 2. Procedures, The road to a P.Eng begins with the right education - Canadian 3. Council of Professional Engineers, 2006.

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Abstracts

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CULTIVATION OF INNOVATIVE ENGINEERING TALENTS IN CHINA PANYUNHE Executive Vice President, Chinese Academy of Engineering

1. Huge Engineering Scale and Market China has mad huge investment in public sector engineering over the past few years. In 2006 alone, social fixed asset investment reached ¥ 10 trillion Yuan. Experts believe that China is entering a period of large-scale industrialization unprecedented in history.

2. Large Engineering Workforce In 2005, the overall scientific and technological workforce in China reached 35 million, ranking first in the world. Among them, one third was in engineering technology, reaching more than 10 million. In 2205, the total in-school PhD student exceeded 130 thousand (next only to that in the U.S. and Germany), among whom SO thousand were in Engineering (ENG.D).

3. Rapid Upgrading of Engineering Capacity From 2000 to 2005, patents granted for invention from China rose form the 13 th to the 4th in the world. Domestic patents granted for invention also rose from the Sth to the 4th in the world.

4. Challenges Facing Engineering Technology in China a. b. c. d. e. f.

High Energy Consumption in Production Insufficient Investment in R&D Heave Dependence on Imported Technology and Lack of Innovative Products Manufacturing industry Big but Weak Imbalance in Talents Structure Weak Innovation Capability 143

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5. Trends of Engineering Education in China a. b. c. d. e.

Turning Theory into Practice Promoting inter and cross disciplinary research Intensifying Research-Based Education Emphasis on Re-education of Engineer Toward Internationalization

Key words: Cultivation of innovation; engineering talents

THE STATUS OF INDIA'S HIGHER TECHNICAL EDUCATION: WHAT IS THE WAY FORWARD?

P.RAMARAO ARC!, Hyderabad-500 005

ABSTRACT The state of education and research in engineering and technology in the country at this juncture warrants serious discussion. On the positive side, there has been nearly six-fold growth during the recent decade 1995-2005, so much so we have today over 1500 technical institutions with a total annual intake of nearly 5,70,000. It is also well that the private sector has contributed to most of the growth and accounts for over 90% of the number of institutions in several States. The large and rapid expansion of higher technical education, combined with widespread non-formal education in the area of IT, has brought in substantial investments and thereby large-scale employment predominantly in the ITES and BPO segments. The perceptible burnishing of India's economic image owes not a little to the above developments. There are several negatives to this scenario. The quality of engineering education has suffered grievously on account of a severe dearth of faculty. The failure rate in several engineering colleges in unacceptably high and quite a number of those that are graduating are not readily employable. The phenomenal growth in the number of institutions is confined to a few States of India with the result the Institutional disparities among the different regions are disturbing. Worse still is the fact that research is non-existent in all but about 15-20 of these nearly 1500 colleges. The consequence is that while India presently graduates every year over 225,000 B.Techs., the annual outturn of M.Techs. is less than 10,000 and that of Ph.Ds. is less than 1,000. In sum, what is easy has been done and what is difficult is yet to be adequately attempted.

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The way forward is not easily crafted. The immediate problem to attend to is to find qualified faculty to fill over 40,000 vacancies. Even on the basis of a relaxed ratio of one Professor for every two Readers and six Lecturers, the number of Ph.Ds. needed would be over 30,000. Where and how is one to begin to close these colossal gaps? The talk will summarise the suggestions made in this respect recently be distinguished committees. In conclusion, the talk will present some of the recent models of organizational structure in the broad area of higher education that show promise. With the intention of inviting discussion, the speaker will also put forward a possible new institutional design for higher education and advanced research in engineering and technology.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN INDIA DR. A. RAMAKRISHNA Past President INAE Advisor, L&T, ECC, Chennai, India

ABSTRACT This paper deals with the current status of the Engineering Education and highlights the mismatch between the industry expectations and the skill set of students who come out of the engineering colleges. Generally, there is a perception in the industry that the graduates coming out of the university have to be given a minimum of one year training before they can be put into proper use in the industry. There is also a mismatch of quantity and quality of diploma holders from Technical Education stream vis-a-vis the graduate engineers. The paper highlights the problems faced in India, especially in the construction segment, employing a large number of civil, mechanical and electrical engineers. It briefly highlights some initiatives taken by MIs. Larsen and Turbo to get right quality people at entry level, through joint programmes with IITs. Industrial Perspective for Technical Education in India

There exists a tremendous dearth of skilled category workmen/technicians in construction segment. The paper outlines some ideas and perspective for consideration and discussion to address the problem and find appropriate solution: • • • •

Training at entry level and curriculum orientation including aspects of cost, productivity, quality, safety, problem solving, management etc. Improvement of quality of teaching relevant to industry. Increase in number of post graduates using practicing engineers as a source of input. Practical research in tune with the industry requirements. 147

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• • • •

• • • •

Building large size consultancy organizations with spcialization in end-user segment. Increase in quality and availability of number of teachers. Improvement in R&D in industrial establishment by deputation of faculty to worked with the industry. Short term Diploma and Certificate courses to update the knowledge levels of practicing engineers, with national coordination through industry associations. Association with standardization and codes of practice. Compilation of data on industrial projects analysis and publication of books/database for future reference/case studies as aid to teaching Up gradations in skills of unemployed and underemployed engineers in make them useful. International collaborations and benchmarking.

CONSORTIUM RESEARCH AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ENGINEERING EDUCATION

M. M. MURUGAPPAN Carborundum Universal Ltd Dare House, Chennai 600001

ABSTRACT

Engineering as a profession has undergone various morphological changes in the last 10 years all over the world. Specifically, manufacturing technology, products and customer expectations are very dynamic in the new millennium. It is essential that engineering education should be aligned to this direction. Two ways through which engineering education can be reoriented to meet the emerging challenges i.e. "consortium research approach" and "creating new academic courses approach". The consortium research approach proves to be useful from the industrial perspective. Generally, the consortium research consists of pool of person from industry. Faculty from academia / laboratories and students. This consortium supports the MS and PhD work. The research topics are inline with the need of consortium members. The consortium comes together on specific topic heads thus providing focus to the research work. In this way, students are exposed to dynamic environment and opportunities are provided work on new technology developments. Our group has had an opportunity to be involved in such industry institute initiatives as, a consortium member in Colorado School of Mines, USA for steel processing and products applications, Penn State University for ceramics characterization and Damstadt university for mechanical power transmission application. In this paper, our company experiences, the importance of consortium research and its influence or engineering education are discussed.

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A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE ON ENGINEERING EDUCATION IMPERATIVES ROELOFFSANDENBERGH Dean, Faculty of Engineering Built Environment and Information Technology University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002, South Africa

ABSTRACT The number of engineers trained in South Africa is relatively low and is a potential limiting factor in the technological development of the country. Increasing the number of engineering graduates is however not a simple matter given the history of the country and the poor base in science and mathematics teaching at school level. In this paper the present situation regarding engineering education in South Africa will be reviewed and initiatives that the University of Pretoria have taken to overcome these problem and future perspectives on how to deliver increasing numbers of well rounded engineers will be discussed

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COMBINING EQUITY WITH EXCELLENCE P.V.INDIRESAN Former Director of lIT Madras ABSTRACT

In the on-going debate on reservation in higher education, most people have taken rigid stands either way. Ideally, we should look for better solutions for combining equity with excellence. Essentially the problem boils down to modifying our admission system. It is no secret that the JEE has become corrupted by excessive coaching and is favoring automatons more than innovative minds. It is also unfair in so far as it deters bright minds from poor families.

My suggestion is for the IITs to outsource the short listing of admissions to reputed schools which have been sending their students to the IITs. Each school will get a quota depending on how many of their earlier students perform well after joining the IITs. The IITs can then have a more effective selection from among the small number of short listed students. This move will have the following benefits: (a) Schools will train students to do well in studies and not merely in answering predictable questions in the entrance examination. (b) Students will devote more attention to regular studies in the Higher Secondary classes which they do not do at present. (c) The prestige of these Feeder Schools will increase and pressure for admission will drift to earlier classes. (d) With pressure shifting tom admission to feeder schools, the handicap the poor suffer from for want of expensive coaching over long year will diminish; they will have (as British experience has shown) better chances of getting into the IITs.

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ENGINEERING EDUCATION AT MURDOCH UNIVERSITY AND OVERSEAS

Y. ATIIKIOUZEL AM FfSE Executive Dean Division of Science and Engineering Murdoch University Murdoch WA 6150, Australia

ABSTRACT

Engineering education commenced at Murdoch University some twelve years ago in a new campus 30km south of Perth. During its early years Engineering won a number of awards for its innovative laboratory design and implementation. Engineering at Murdoch did not and does not presently offer Mechanical or Civil Engineering. It specializes in Process Control and Renewable Engineering and recently introduced Power Engineering. It offers a number of double degrees and more recently a number of joint degrees with flourish in 2006 Engineering was moved to the main university campus. A now form part of exciting new offerings with other Australian institutions and with Singapore, China and elsewhere.

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ACRONYMS acatech AI AICTE ANI ANI ATSE ATV BOG CAE CAE CAETS CSIR DRDO DSIR DST EACR EAJ FACTE HAE HATZ IITM INAE ISRO IVA NAE NAEK NATF NFTW NTVA RAEng. RAI SAAE SATW

German Academy of Science and Engineering, Germany Amnesty International, Mexico All India Council for Technical Education, India Academia Nacional de Ingenierfa de la Republica Argentina National Academy of Engineering of Uruguay, Uruguay Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Australia Danish Academy of Technical Sciences, Denmark Board of Governors Canadian Academy of Engineering, Canada Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India Defence Research and Development Organisation, India Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, India Department of Science & Technology, India Engineering Academy of the Czech Republic Engineering Academy of Japan, Japan Finnish Academies of Technology, Finland Hungarian Academy of Engineering, Hungary Croatian Academy of Engineering, Croatia Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India Indian National Academy of Engineering, India Indian Space Research Organisation, India Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Sweden National Academy of Engineering, US National Academy of Engineering Korea, Korea National Academy of Technologies of France, France Netherlands Foundation for Technology and Science, Netherlands Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, Norway The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Real Academia de Ingenieria, Spain South African Academy of Engineering, South Africa Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, Switzerland 153

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AUTHOR INDEX Ananth M S

71

Ashok Misra

78

Baldev Raj

91

Damodar Acharya

83

DayartnamP

38

Haruki Veno

106

Indiresan P V

151

Julia EKing

3

Krishnadas Nair C G

125

Murugappan M M

149

Natarajan R

29

Pan Yunhe

143

RamaRaoP

145

Ramakrishna A

147

Ravindran C Ravi

136

Reiner Kopp

45

Sandenbergh R F

150

Singh D V

53

Xu Delong

60

Yianni Attikiouzel

152

155