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The Next Frontier in Engineering Education: The Master's Degree
Author(s) -
Cranch Edmund T.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.896
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 2168-9830
pISSN - 1069-4730
DOI - 10.1002/j.2168-9830.1994.tb00119.x
Subject(s) - professionalization , curriculum , engineering education , frontier , degree (music) , engineering , engineering ethics , pedagogy , sociology , political science , engineering management , social science , law , physics , acoustics
Engineering education in the United States is at an evolutionary turning point, poised to move forward by elevating and strengthening the educational base of the profession through greater utilization of the master's degree. The primary reasons for this are (a) the demands placed on the engineer arising from the increased rate of change of technology, (b) the need to cope with the increased breadth and complexity of modern professional practice, and (c) the impossibility of crowding ever more material into the four‐year curriculum. Educators need to examine the program structure and curricular content of master's level education to take into account these changes in the engineering workplace and the need to appreciably extend the years of productive performance. A recent comprehensive study by the Council of Graduate Schools reveals that the professionalization of master's education has advanced to the stage where virtually every profession has adopted the master's degree as the basis for modern practice.