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

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT■Which domains and disciplines of technological science shouldbe taught at what level (levels such as: polytechnical education;Bachelor degrees; Master degrees; doctorates; postgraduateeducation; graduate training; distance learning; self improvement)?■ How to share the total education time (e.g. 4,000 to 4,200 hours)into the general domains of fundamental knowledge necessaryfor engineers (such as mathematics, physics, construction andpractical work)?■■How can ‘traditional’ areas of activity for engineers (suchas mechanical, electrical, civil and structural) be adapted tothe demands placed on modern engineers, particularly withrespect to the traditional way that the engineering professionis organized and education is accredited?How are ‘new’ areas of activity (such as systems, nuclear, aerospace,computing, information, environmental, medical, mechatronics,robotics, acoustics, marine, energy, logistics, security,management and others) being taught and represented?7.2Engineering capacity7.2.1Needs and numbers – andthe need for better numbersTony MarjoramHow many engineers does a country need? How many engineersdoes a country need to produce to keep up with thisneed? If a country produces more engineers – will that promotedevelopment? What types of engineer does a countryneed to produce, and at what levels? Are developed countries,such as the United States and Europe, failing to produceenough engineers, compared to rapidly developing countriessuch as China and India? Do other developing and least developedcountries have enough engineers, are they producingenough or losing too many to brain drain to be able to promotedevelopment, reduce poverty and tackle major issuesregarding climate change mitigation and adaptation? Whatare the consequences of these questions for developmentaround the world, and what are the implications for educationpolicy, for engineering education at tertiary level, and for scienceeducation at secondary and primary school? And whatdo engineers, policy-makers, planners, aid donors and internationalagencies, and organizations such as UNESCO needto do about it?These questions are being asked increasingly urgently bygrowing numbers of people in more and more countries,for different background reasons. The problem in responseis that these are also, in fact, rather complex questions, forwhich there are no simple or straightforward answers. Thisis partly, and perhaps surprisingly, because of a shortage ofstatistical data and indicators at national and internationallevel with which to answer the questions and compareresponses in many countries, both developed and developing.Many of the questions, are based on such widely broadcastestimates in the media, for example, that the UnitedStates only graduates 70,000 engineers a year, compared toIndia at 350,000 and China at 600,000. This is one reason whythere is also so much reference to quantitative, qualitativeand anecdotal evidence from universities, industry and professionalengineering organizations regarding the supposedshortage of engineers, now and into the future. This concernwas reflected in the production of the report, Rising abovethe gathering storm: energizing and employing America for abrighter economic future, by the National Academy of Engineeringin the US in 2007, and the following debate (interestingly,the ‘gathering storm’ also alludes to the first volumeof Churchill’s Nobel Prize winning chronicle of the SecondWorld War).Background realitiesThe above questions are complicated not only by the fact thatthere are different fields, types and levels of engineers (e.g. civil,mechanical and electrical engineering, technicians and technologists,academic, professional and consulting engineers, atdegree, master’s or doctoral level), but also by differing needsfor engineers in different sectors, fields, types and levels at differenttimes and different places (countries and regions withinthem), as technologies and industries develop and decline.There are also different needs for engineers over time; forexample, the increasing use of CAD software has made civiland structural engineers more productive, requiring less supportstaff. Engineering and technology are the drivers of incrementaland disruptive change in society and in engineering,and the understanding, policy-making and planning of engineeringrequires a knowledge of such transverse and longitudinalchanges over time.The above questions are further complicated by different definitionsand understandings of what an engineer is. In Germany,for example, there are around fifty definitions of an engineer.In many countries the term ‘engineer’ is also used commonly310