Preparing engineering students for the challenges of the SDGs: what competences are required?

Beagon, Úna; Kövesi, Klára; Tabas, Brad; Nørgaard, Bente; Riitta, Lehtinen; Bowe, Brian; Gillet, Christiane; Spliid, Claus Monrad

doi:10.1080/03043797.2022.2033955

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Indeed, engineering education research confirms that the skill set demand in the field of engineering is broad [2], role-specific [3] and in constant evolution (e.g. responding to the challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals [4]). Engineering faculties are responding to these social and technological developments in different ways.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Students’ perceptions of a major engineering curriculum reform

Greet¹,

Craps²,

Broeck³

2022

Towards a New Future in Engineering Education, New Scenarios That European Alliances of Tech Universities Open Up

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As the demands of industry are evolving and new generations of students are entering universities, many engineering faculties invest time in curriculum reforms based on inspirational innovations, underpinned by engineering education research. The Faculty of Engineering Technology (FET) of KU Leuven had an additional argument to implement a huge programme reform: this faculty, hosting more than 6000 students spread across seven campuses in Flanders (Belgium), was an amalgam of different traditions and visions. Their merger into one faculty in 2013 aimed to optimize the organisation of research, education and community service. The goal of the programme reform in 2020-2021 was fourteenfold: enhancing our typical profile of (1) hands-on engineering in (2) strong interaction with the labour market and setting up (3) a technology hub with more attention to (4) multidisciplinarity, (5) professional competencies, (6) personal development & support, (7) lifelong learning and (8) challenges including (9) complex problem solving. The reform also aims to increase the (10) attractiveness and (11) social relevance of the programmes. By strengthening the internal coherence in the faculty, we can exploit the (12) multicampus narrative to offer students more choices and develop their (13) future disciplinary self, supported by (14) choice guidance. This paper describes how the curriculum was adapted in order to achieve these goals and presents the results of perception measurements organised among freshmen who followed the old programme in 2019-2020 and freshmen registered in the new programme in 2020-2021. Of foremost importance is the increased feeling that the professional competencies are essential for an engineer.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Students’ perceptions of a major engineering curriculum reform

Greet¹,

Craps²,

Broeck³

2022

Towards a New Future in Engineering Education, New Scenarios That European Alliances of Tech Universities Open Up

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“…Engineering educations all over the world are currently experiencing new expectations and demands regarding the graduates' skills and competencies. In addition to the technical domain skills and competencies, there is an increased demand for interdisciplinary skills and transversal competencies (Passow, 2012;Beagon et al, 2021), not to mention the Industry 4.0 concept requiring, for example, digitisation competencies (Nørgaard & Guerra, 2018). In addition, the UN's 17 SDG goals provide a framework for sustainability in the entire field of technology, having a major impact on engineering education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European engineering students’ perception of learning and teaching activities

Nørgaard

Spliid

2022

9th Research in Engineering Education Symposium (REES 2021) and 32nd Australasian Association for Engineering Education Confere

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STEM universities in Europe apply different pedagogical and didactic methods, which are reflected in the learning activities that are organised for the students. These activities provide students with different experiences in terms of handling their learning and in terms of achievement. There is great variation in terms of both semester structure and how teaching is carried out. A significant commonality is that besides technical domain skills and competencies, there are expectations (or demands) placed on students regarding acquisition of interdisciplinary skills and transversal competences.The goal of this study is to illuminate students' perception of the various learning activities and teaching practices provided at STEM universities in Europe and to illuminate different perspectives of students' learning experiences. The goal is also to influence educators to implement increased use of student-centred learning approachesThe study was conducted through a survey disseminated through a European STEM students' network. Of the 349 respondents, 133 were determined as valid for extracting the conclusions. The survey included an open question where students were asked to describe a situation where they 'had significant learning accomplishment'. The survey also contained multiple-choice questions that aimed to create the profile of each respondent, based on their study structure and background. The answers were categorised according to contemporary learning theory. The profiles of the students were used to compare their experiences and draw conclusions based on students' perceptions of their learning experiences.Based on the theoretical framework, the findings show that students' responses point to experiences of interaction processes (with peers or teachers) to a higher degree than experiences with acquisition processes (with content or with motivation). Recommendations point towards implementing a higher degree of student centred learning coupled with intensive teacher support. In addition, the development of students' reflective skills may improve their learning practices and thus increase their acquisition of skills and competencies.

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“…Engineers are commonly acknowledged as having a critical and increasing role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and are required to promote the principles of sustainability [1,2,6,7]. The role of future engineers is not only related to the emergence of technical progress, but they are also required to lead solving complex social and environmental problems [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To accomplish this mission, it is essential to train graduate engineers to acquire new sustainability competences. This is considered one of the major challenges faced by engineering education institutions [7]. Consequently, there is an ongoing transformation in all developed countries for implementing sustainability competences' development in engineering curricula.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What about sustainability? Investigating engineering students’ sustainability awareness and attitude

Nakad¹,

Kövesi²

2022

Towards a New Future in Engineering Education, New Scenarios That European Alliances of Tech Universities Open Up

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Engineers have a growing contribution towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus, graduate engineering students’ awareness and attitude will be crucial for dealing with these complex societal challenges. The purpose of this study is to investigate the sustainability awareness (SA) of engineering students from a developing country in comparison to that of those published from developed European countries. It also aims to explore engineering students’ attitudes and willingness to consider sustainability challenges as an important part of their future professional role. We have conducted a quantitative online survey (n=253) with the participation of engineering students from different majors at Bachelors and Masters levels. The data concerning students’ awareness and attitude underwent quantitative statistical analysis and was compared to that in the literature. The data was analyzed using SPSS to investigate differences and similarities between majors and validate its quality. The findings show good levels of SA and lower levels of knowledge in SDGs among engineering students compared to that presented by European studies. Thus, a gap in SDGs’ awareness exists between students from developed and developing countries. However, students’ positive attitudes and willingness to be involved in SDGs’ practices were remarkably high in understanding the leading role of engineers toward achieving the SDGs. Our results confirm engineering students’ motivation and strong positive attitude for resolving sustainability issues in developing countries despite challenging lifestyles. Our findings could be further used by engineering faculties in developing countries to minimize the gap and enhance future engineers’ contribution towards a more sustainable society.

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Preparing engineering students for the challenges of the SDGs: what competences are required?

Cited by 27 publications

References 51 publications

Students’ perceptions of a major engineering curriculum reform

Students’ perceptions of a major engineering curriculum reform

European engineering students’ perception of learning and teaching activities

What about sustainability? Investigating engineering students’ sustainability awareness and attitude

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