Engineering practice : a driver for curriculum change

In the not so distant past, tertiary institutions were pillars of professional wisdom, nourished by technical research, the results of which were disseminated through graduates who helped shape industry to be more competitive, innovative and inventive. However, this process has radically changed, owing to a large extent, to economic globalization and to new technologies moving outside universities, often to specialist businesses that own the rights to the innovation. This is a relatively new phenomenon which, in turn, is precipitating radical changes in the university engineering curriculum. One of the effects of globalization is to make engineering practice more diverse, risk averse and complex. Engineers are more likely to need leadership skills hence they need an understanding of broader cultural, political and economic, as well as technical issues. They need to possess good social skills, strong values, and embrace diversity and tolerance. In addition, the lack of communication skills in most graduate engineers was the greatest obstacle to their development as managers and leaders. Many also lack the human relations skills necessary for working effectively in teams. This paper aims at examining industry driven changes in engineering curriculum and suggests adjustments needed to accommodate the new working environment.