Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 890 de 957
Topic: Miscellaneous – Chair: James Trevelyan
Balancing the Budget: Aspects of Economics in Engineering Education
James Trevelyan
James.Trevelyan@uwa.edu.au
The University of Western Australia, Perth
Australia
Abstract: Ultimately, education reform probably has to be judged in economic
terms in order for significant financial resources to be applied. Yet there seems
to have been relatively little discussion of economic factors in engineering
education research. This paper outlines an approach for discussing the economic
factors in engineering education that might provide valuable insights for
researchers. While cost factors are reasonably easy to identify and some can be
quantified, the benefits of education are much harder to define, let alone
measure. Research studies provide evidence that there is little relationship
between academic and on-the-job performance by engineers, and, as yet, there
are no well accepted measures of education and learning quality. This paper
argues that the investment in training, professional development, and
productivity opportunity costs made by an enterprise in the early years of an
engineer's career could provide a proxy measure for the effectiveness of
engineering education.
Economic aspects in engineering education
This paper seeks to raise some fundamental questions that seem relevant for engineering
educators. What are the costs and benefits of engineering education? Behind this question
lie others. For example, why does it take four or five years of university studies and
another two, three or even four years of experiential learning after that for young
engineers to be considered to be competent professionals? While engineering education
researchers and practitioners have been advocating reform for decades, it is curious that
questions on the economics seem to have been absent from that discourse.
Most engineers, whether they work in commerce, government, the military or academia,
work with the daily reality of economics, if only in the form of resource constraints
imposed by others and in their private lives with financial matters. Research by the author
and his students on engineering practice in the commercial sphere has revealed a
pervasive drive for cost-effectiveness in the daily work of engineers (Crossley, 2011;
Domal, 2010; Han, 2008; Mehravari, 2007; Trevelyan, 2007, 2010; Trevelyan & Tilli,
2008). Other studies have provided similar findings (e.g. Faulkner, 2007; Kilduff, Funk, &
Mehra, 1997; Korte, Sheppard, & Jordan, 2008; Kunda, 1992; Lagesen & Sorensen, 2009;
Perlow, 1999). Practically all the engineers portrayed in research studies described how
they were seeking to increase financial benefits for their clients or employers (either
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011