Aspects of engineering education: a comparison between Bangladesh and Australia

Skilled engineering graduates are needed for the sustainable development of a country. Bangladesh is the eighth populus country in the world, with only 3 engineers per thousand as compared to 25 engineers per thousand in Australia. This paper compares engineering studies at Western Sydney University (WSU) and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). It also compares Civil Engineering courses at WSU, BUET, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IITK) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. Engineering education in WSU and BUET has few similarities, but there are several differences in terms of curriculum, accreditation, assessment, and career prospects. It has been found that BUET, IITK and MIT have few social sciences courses in their undergraduate engineering courses as opposed to WSU. Also, WSU Civil Engineering course does not have any chemistry subject in contrary to BUET, IITK and MIT. BUET course has a strong theoretical basis, which can be strengthened by adding more topics on soft skills such as scholarly writing and industry placements. Both the WSU and BUET should include subjects on emerging fields such as climate science, artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainability. In terms of 2025 global ranking, WSU is placed at 384 (QS ranking), 301-350 (Times Higher Education) and 1 (Impact ranking). BUET has a ranking of 761-770 (QS ranking) and 1001-1200 (Times Higher Education). These rankings reflect the overall quality of WSU and BUET. WSU and BUET has an active memorandum of understanding (MOU), which should be made more effective by building new collaborations in teaching, learning and research in the areas of common interests.