1. Professor Peter J Goodhew CBE FREng, Emeritus Professor of Engineering, formerly Dean of Engineering and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Liverpool

It might be helpful to clarify what engineering education is not. It is not about the acquisition of specific practical skills, however useful or interesting they might be to any individual. It is not about training people to run CFD codes or send CAD designs to a CNC machine or to grow crystals or to sign off structural steelwork. It is about the conceptual, planning and design skills which should precede all these activities. It is about imagining and understanding and predicting, as quantitatively as possible, why and how an engineering objective can be realised and delivered. (Goodhew 2014)

2. Professor Emanuela Tilley, Director of the Integrated Engineering Programme, University College London

Engineering education is no longer solely about specific content anymore or, indeed, traditional knowledge. It’s much more about processes and the students’ application of the knowledge. (AECOM 2018)

3. Professor Jeremy Watson CBE FREng, past President of the Institution of Engineering Technology

We need to train a new generation of engineers in skills that are genuinely relevant to the new industrial values of flexibility, technical advancement and on-going innovation. Single discipline specialism and theory will no longer cut it in the modern world.  (The Institution of Engineering and Technology and The Engineering Professors’ Council 2017)

4. Professor Janusz Kozinski: Founding President & Vice-Chancellor of the Hereford University of Technology and Engineering, formerly Founding Dean of York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering

The stars are aligned for an Engineering Renaissance here in the UK and throughout the world. We as educators need to seize this moment to work collaboratively with students and employers to co-create a whole new set of models to reflect their needs. In doing so, we can turn a fear of change and flux created by technology and disruption, into a new era of enlightenment for engineering education. (Koziński, J. A., and Evans, E. F., 2017).

5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

5. Successful engineering education change is characterised by (1) a leadership style that articulates a clear educational vision and demonstrates a personal commitment to establishing a new paradigm for engineering education at the institution; (2) a distinctive ‘spirit’ or culture of collegiality and common purpose that pervades the faculty, (3) student engagement in and understanding of new educational approaches, (4) in-house development of new tools and resources to support and advance the educational approach. (Graham 2018)

References

AECOM. (2018). The future of infrastructure: Expert opinions from around the world on the challenges and opportunities ahead. AECOM.

Goodhew, P. J. (2014). Teaching Engineering: All you need to know about engineering education but were afraid to ask, London: Royal Academy of Engineering.

Graham, R. (2018). The global state of the art in engineering education. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Koziński, J. A., and Evans, E. F. (2017). “An Engineering Renaissance”, New Approaches to Engineering in Higher Education. London: The Institution of Engineering and Technology, The Engineering Professors’ Council.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and The Engineering Professors’ Council. “New Approaches to Engineering in Higher Education.” Presented at New Approaches to Engineering in Higher Education, London.