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

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTExample IDTC initiative – International Student SupportIn line with the comments from the university’s strategicplan of 1997, mentioned above, about recruiting moreinternational students and building on the experience ofIDTC, the Faculty made a decision to be proactive in thisarea and in 1998 recruited the then Director* of IDTC asAssistant Dean, International. The International StudentSupport Unit in the Faculty was set up in 1998. The Unit’srole was multi-faceted, and involved:■■■■■provision of academic and other support to overseasstudents both undergraduate and postgraduate,including Study Abroad and exchange;encouragement of international linkages for theFaculty;.development of exchange programmes and other formsof international experience for Australian students inthe Faculty:promotion of the University’s Cultural Diversity Policywithin the Faculty and its programmes;development of opportunities for professionalexperience and industry interaction for overseasstudents;■■support for the Faculty’s overseas recruitmentoperations; andfostering of Faculty overseas alumni links.This programme and can be seen to have three components.Firstly, overseas students in the Faculty should have anexperience that not only is superior academically and professionally,but is also pleasant and enriching from a socialand cultural viewpoint.Secondly, the Australian students should be encouragedto develop an international viewpoint and, if possible,experience a different cultural environment. At this pointit is worth reporting that over 70 per cent of Universityof Melbourne Australian engineering students are completingdouble degrees, combining engineering with Arts,Commerce, Science or Law, so they are already exposed todifferent professional cultures. There is also a Diploma ofModern Languages at the university, which can be takenconcurrently with another degree, so that engineering studentscan complete their engineering degree and at thesame time develop fluency in another language.Thirdly, and this is in many ways the most difficult challenge,the academic staff must be encouraged to developinternational linkages for research and other professionalactivities, to internationalize the curriculum of the subjectsthey teach and to see the overseas students they teachor supervise for higher degrees as a valuable enrichingresource who have a valid world view, even if it is differentfrom that of the lecturer.There are other outcomes but the above report illustrateswhat can be done. The importance of inclusion in technologicalcurricula of studies in national and communitydevelopment and cross-cultural experience is commonlyunderestimated and therefore commonly not implemented.Professional leaders should give some thoughtto the potential value of encouraging academic leadersto provide the balance in education that is available if theconcept of environment for professional practice is widenedin this way.* Associate Professor D. F. Stewart.folio heavily oriented to those countries with a great need todevelop their irrigation infrastructure), which could be managedconsistently through the Centre. However, development(insofar as it relates to developing countries) was no longerthe only focus.A similar change was another Faculty move to translate theCentre for International Irrigation Training and Research(CIITR) into IDTC. The effects were somewhat complementaryto the absorption of the Environmental Engineering Programbecause CIITR had a small cohort of students but a very welldeveloped project folio heavily oriented to those countrieswith a great need to develop their irrigation infrastructure.The two semesters of coursework encouraged the academicdepartments to develop new graduate subjects; the conventionalcivil engineering subjects were thus joined by courseworkin such disciplines as Environmental Engineering,Irrigation Management, Energy Studies, Facilities Managementand Project Management. This diversity of discipline inthe elective part of the Master and Graduate Diploma programmeswas brought together around the core of DevelopmentTechnologies and by the recruitment of academic stafffrom countries outside Australia.Academic programmes of this kind will always be subject tochallenges, most of which are essentially healthy. Such programmesare perceived as being outside the mainstream. Thatrequires the kind of self-appraisal and adaptability that is essentialin any activity where there is competition for resources andfor enrolling candidates. It is of paramount importance to workcontinuously to maintain the relevance of the programme tothe ‘environment’ for which the academic service is provided. Itis very easy for any academic unit to become introspective andself-satisfied, but particularly so when its raison d’etre is to beinterested primarily in places that are remote from ‘home’.7.4.2 Botswana Technology CentreMokubung MokubungThe Botswana Government recognizes the need to address theUnited Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN, 2000) 79in order to tackle national development issues, especially theacceleration of poverty reduction, employment creation andeconomic diversification (Budget Speech, 2008). 80 Poverty isstill a challenge in Botswana and therefore it remains a priorityfor Government to address (Budget Speech, 2009). 81 The79 UN. 2000. UN Millennium Development Goals. United Nations. Available at: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ (Accessed: 28 May 2010).80 Budget Speech, 2008, Botswana Budget Speech of 2008. Available at: http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0002982/index.php (Accessed: 28 May 2010).81 Budget Speech, 2009, Botswana Budget Speech of 2009. Available at: http://www.parliament.gov.bw/docs/documents/2009BudgetSpeech.pdf(Accessed: 28 May 2010).352