Engineering Ethics Survey for Faculty: An Assessment Tool

The College of Engineering at Villanova University is committed to an Ethics Across the Curriculum component in all of its undergraduate programs. During the fall of 2011 the College administered a Faculty Survey on Professional Ethics to all the full-time members of the College faculty. The survey was designed to assess the faculty’s backgrounds in engineering ethics as well as their willingness to participate in the ethics initiative. This paper discusses the logistics of developing and administering the survey and summarizes the results of the survey. Other institutions may want to use this survey or a similar instrument to establish a base line regarding their faculty’s familiarity with ethics principles and the degree to which the faculty address ethical issues in their classes.