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Practitioner and Student Recommendations for an Engineering Curriculum
Author(s) -
Koehn Enno
Publication year - 1995
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.2168-9830.1995.tb00173.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , process (computing) , engineering education , engineering , medical education , engineering design process , engineering management , mathematics education , psychology , engineering ethics , pedagogy , computer science , medicine , mechanical engineering , operating system
A bstract For over 100 years studies have consistently recommended that the engineering curriculum should stress underlying principles and have a considerable range of cultural studies. Nevertheless, some employers continue to state that they are not totally satisfied with the average engineering graduate. The findings of this study, however, suggest that practicing engineers and students are generally satisfied with the civil engineering curriculum. Nevertheless, both groups recommend that the credits allocated to surveying, graphics, and computers should be increased. Practitioners, in general, believe that there should be a decrease in mathematically oriented subjects such as calculus, statistics and numerical methods. Older graduates, in particular, recommend an increase in business courses such as law, accounting, and personnel management. They also believe that technical writing and oral communication skills should be a vital part of the program. It appears to be difficult to design a curriculum, requiring a reasonable number of credits, that satisfies all age groups. Therefore, at commencement, an engineer must expect to initiate a life‐long process of informal/formal education to supplement the knowledge obtained by satisfying the civil engineering degree requirements.