Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTopportunity here for Arab engineering colleges to benefit fromthis prosperity in order to innovate in engineering. This opportunityhas not yet been taken.New private engineering schools have mushroomed in the lastdecade, but this should be monitored carefully. Our immediateinclination is to approve and highlight its successes, but thereis also the danger of overlapping, consumerism and commercialism.The question of overlap is vital since we have privateengineering institutions copying educational programmes fromthe West or from prestigious universities in their area. Such atendency deteriorates quality education and leads to consumerismand commercialism; institutions of this kind are run as businessesand education is often not their top priority.The role of the private engineering schoolsPrivate engineering schools and colleges have to rise to thenew challenges that the world is facing with the growth andmobility of capital and technology. There is a special role forprivate engineering education in the Arab world to foster theknowledge that the modern world is seeking. State universitiesin Arab regions have limited capability to adapt to thefast changes happening in the world and, therefore, privateeducation in the field of engineering has a golden opportunity– indeed, a business opportunity – to innovate in technologyand to assist in building a competitive knowledge society. Theexamples from Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysiaare promising in terms of partnerships that could be establishedbetween universities, the state and business.The real challenge is therefore to innovate and not imitatein the field of engineering education in Arab countries. Historically,engineering education comprised the traditionaldomains that are well known: civil, electrical and mechanical.With the invention of computing and developments in informationtechnology, these domains have expanded and specializationhas become the norm. It seems that every year a newfield of engineering is introduced to higher education. Thesefields are often created on the demands of the labour market.Such multi-disciplinarity in engineering is the approach thatArab universities will have to adopt in order to survive andcreate a new Arab renaissance in construction, business, telecommunicationsand innovation. If the Arab renaissance ofthe nineteenth century was a revolution for the Arab culturalidentity, there is a need now for a renaissance in the teachingof engineering; and there is no place for failure because theexpectations are so high and the changes are so fast.Arab scholars should be proud of their history and could learnfrom their relics to build their future. One can look proudlyat the Arab contribution to engineering through the inventionsof the water wheel, cisterns, irrigation, water wells atfixed levels and the water clock. In the year 860, the threesons of Musa ibn Shakir published the Book on Artifices, whichdescribed a hundred technical constructions. One of the earliestphilosophers, al-Kindi, wrote on specific weight, tides,light reflection and optics. Al-Haytham (known in Europe asAlhazen) wrote a book in the tenth century on optics, KitabAl Manazir. He explored optical illusions, the rainbow and thecamera obscura (which led to the beginning of photographicinstruments). Al-Haytham did not limit himself to one branchof the sciences but, like many Arab scientists and thinkers,explored and made contributions to the fields of physics, anatomyand mathematics.So the challenges for Arab private institutions is to be inspiredfrom a glorious history to build innovative engineering facultiesthat can compete in the fast world of globalization. TheArab world is not isolated and we should learn from othernations including Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, Singaporeand Malaysia on how to combine theory with practice.Our responsibilities towards our nations and future generationsare serious with the admission that the current situationin the engineering profession is not everything it could be andneeds to be. Arab nations should have the will, through theirgovernment ministries of higher education and through theirprofessional organizations, to give educational systems theflexibility to adopt new programmes, improve existing programmesand to monitor accreditation associations effectivelyso as to ensure the quality of engineering education in our privateinstitutions.JordanJordan Engineers AssociationJordan lies among Iraq to the east, Palestine to the west, Syriato the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. It retains an historicpresence as a link between cultures going back to ancientMesopotamia and Egypt. A medium-sized country, with anarea of 89,287 km 2 , it has a population of 5.5million 90 growingat 2.8 per cent (world average is 1.3 per cent). Some 80.2 percent of Jordan’s population is under the age of 30.The association for registering engineering professionals wasfounded in 1958, becoming the Jordan Engineers Association(JEA) in 1972. The association has two headquarters, inAmman and in Jerusalem where engineers living in the WestBank in the Palestinian Territories register.The association’s objectives and goals are:■To organize the vocation of engineering to promote its scientificand vocational level, to take benefit thereof in economic,civilization and pan-national mobilization.90 Census of 2004220