Current Trends in the Education of Civil Engineers

 

CYWINSKI, Zbigniew

Technical University of Gdansk, ul. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-952 Gdansk, Poland, zcywin@pg.gda.pl

 

Abstract: Paper, concentrating on author's research only, summarizes briefly his opinion on the necessity to follow a broad, creativity oriented education of civil engineers that surpasses, evidently, the nowadays advocated narrow model - directed solely towards the satisfaction of the present needs of the industry. The manifold challenges of the coming 21st century require the civil engineer to be an open-minded, original individual - having, besides a high technical and economical capability, also a rational understanding of the humanistic background of his profession, thus being able to perform successfully the expectations of the actual society.

Keywords: education, engineers, construction, trends, challenges

 

1 Introduction

Since several years, author actively studies the current trends in the education of engineers, those devoted to civil engineering - in particular. Having over 46 years of experience in teaching, research and practice of civil engineering and, in addition, performing these duties not only in his home country: Poland but also in differently developed countries abroad - from that with the lowest standard: Somalia, over the moderately developed: Iraq, to the top developed: Japan - author feels competent to express his thoughts in that field.

Author reported at recent chief international events focused on civil engineering education, to mention only the CIB (Conseil International du Batiment pour la Recherche l'etude et la Documentation) Symposium Construction/Building Education and Research Beyond 2000, run by the University of Florida in Orlando (USA) - April 1995; the International Congress of Engineering Deans and Industry Leaders, organized by Monash University in Melbourne (Australia) - July 1995; the CIB International Conference Construction Modernization and Education, brought about by the Ministry of Construction in Beijing (China) - October 1996; the SEFI (Societe Europeenne pour la Formation des Ingenieurs) Annual Conference, conducted in Cracow (Poland) - September 1997; the Structural Engineers World Congress Structural Engineering World Wide, produced by the SEI (Structural Engineering Institute) of the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) in San Francisco (USA) - July 1998; and the Global Congress on Engineering Education, arranged by the University of Mining & Metallurgy in Cracow (Poland) - September 1998. Earlier, in 1993, author prepared a position paper for the ASCE Civil Engineering Education Conference in Denver (USA) - June 1995. Author's relevant contributions are specified in the References of this paper.

At some other international meetings author took part without presenting a paper; in that context, he wishes tu quote only the World Congress of Engineering Educators and Industry Leaders of UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization), UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), UATI (International Union of Technical Associations and Organizations), WFEO (World Federation of Engineering Organizations), and CESAER (Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research) in Paris (France) - July 1996.

At all those international meetings the observed dominant tendency was this of an educational model adjusted tightly to the present-day needs of the industry. Author used to be one of very few individuals representing the opinion that such trend makes the graduated engineer insufficiently creative in performing his professional duties. It is not enough to know the answers to the "how"-questions; much more, the graduate should be able to answer the "why"-questions. In this paper, author tries to recall that evidence, once more.

2 Background

Throughout many years of author's professional activity, he always had to face the problems of mutual relations of theory and practice - of the effect of those relations on the final shape and performance of the graduated civil engineer. One fact was interesting to note already at the study level: pupils coming from the general secondary schools were, in their mass, better university students than those recruited from the technical, professional secondary schools - although the latter, originally, showed a superiority in the understanding of the civil engineering profession. Furthermore, looking at the output of graduated civil engineers, author was able to find that those with a high theoretical background were better prepared to cope with various professional issues, even when the last ones were visibly practical in nature. Was the opinion of G. R. Kirchhoff and W. Oswald (Nobel 1909), that there is nothing more practical than a good theory, correct?

After many years of izolation, Polish civil engineers were allowed to perform their profession in different countries abroad. Although they had no proper understanding of the foreign professional specifics, they were able, en gros, to adjust smoothly to various local requirements and to became outstanding professionals. In author's opinion, it was the result of the high knowledge, creativity oriented Polish model of engineering education.

Later, being Professor of the University of Tokyo, author was not astonished the students to be given much sophisticated theory, leaving the development of the engineering practice skills to their professional life after graduation. It appeared that this model of engineering education had a very decisive influence on the success of the Japanese post-war recovering and development, on the actual leading position of Japan concerning the high-tech standards of engineering and the life of the people, as a whole.

All that was another confirmation of author's conviction that "experience can't be taught", but must be - based upon an open mind of the individual - carefully collected and deposited, step-by-step, during all the life of the engineer. Author shares the opinion that theory and practice form a unity - as human spirit and body and, therefore, they remain in a mutual and permanent conflict: "it is the task of the spirit to train the body, or - the objective of the theory to construct the practice". Simulatneously, it is obvious that - within a feedback relation - "practice stimulates evidently the development of the theory - as experiences of the body become processing material for the spirit".

According to author's experiences from Africa, the purely industry addressed model of engineering education, civil - in particular, could be applied, on a short run, alone in developing countries where there - because of demographic reasons - is much demand for the solution of urgent, basic problems of life. However, schools following such type of education cannot be understood to be universities.

3 Focus

Together with the decline of the present century, the world of technology as a whole, and its civil engineering representation - in particular, enjoy a vigorous development. The engineering profession faces new and different challenges, in general largely indisciplinary in nature. Sustainable development is often understood to express their major specifics. Therefore, more and more, philosophic and social aspects become important boundary conditions for the actual civil engineering design and construction. Such situation causes that, naturally, there emerge - worldwide - questions concerning the quality of the present education of engineers; an urgent need of re-engineering is being expressed.

Author finds re-engineering is demanded there, where the ethical status of the society suffered damage, where the standard of the general education proved to be increasingly poor, where there is little understanding for the humanistic background of engineering. Our precursors in the engineering profession were familiar with the Ten Commandements, felt their positives and were able to apply them properly in performing their profession. They were no strangers to the broad humanistic background of technology and were aware of the positive effect of heritage on the professional output of the civil engineer. Suggestions for the present teaching program indicate that today all that, and much more in addition (e. g. oral & written communication), should be taught at the university - as a conditio sine qua non to safeguard a proper conduct of the profession after graduation. This is the result of the consumptional way of life advocated by TV and daily press and of the defeat of ambitious literature by the comics styled; it caused a severe decline of educational standards at the secondary school level.

Author wishes to repeat that the word engineer comes from the Latin ingenium, i. e. - spirit, genius, ingenious power, or sagacity. Thus, engineer should be understood to possess an outstanding intellectual potential, as the primary source of his practical disposition. The application of purely practice oriented civil engineering education runs the danger not to develop properly this potential, generating rather a narrow shaped personality. Simultaneously, education tuned merely on the practice of today is not able to meet, competently, the needs of future. Therefore, present education should, primarily, concentrate on the general sense of civil engineering, and less focused on its particulars - bringing up not only technical information, but teaching to utilize it, creatively, within the overall boundary conditions of the society. The student's real practical formation should be shifted to the time after his graduation. Having developed an appropriate intellectual ability, he will be able to adjust smoothly to any practical demand of the professional area met. In that respect, author wishes to repeat, once more, the earlier statement: "experience can't be taught".

Therefore, only a system of education fostering the development of the intellectual potential of students can guarantee their proper performance as civil engineers in future. Any narrow specialization of education - as shortsighted - should not be applied. Basic and actual engineering sciences plus information technology, together with law, economics, management and several humanistic subjects, are seen to influence crucially the development of the said potential. "Teaching of learning skills" should be today top objective.

4 Conclusions

Today, it is obvious that the actual construction must be strongly future-oriented. Therefore, it should be adjusted to the necessary changes from the industry economy model to that of research and information network economy. Nowadays, a thorough boost for addressing directly the provision of infrastructure for knowledge-based industries and information-based services, is emerging in the highly developed countries. In such circumstances, a modern and progressively armoured civil engineer should be a person of a high and broad intellectual potential. Only in that case he will be able to solve, successfully, the numerous, complex problems of the present world.

Author hopes, his thoughts expressed in this paper may help to shape the civil engineer in good accordance with the requirements of the epoch.

References

CYWINSKI Z. The conflict of theory and practice in civil engineering education. In Preliminary Materials of the ASCE 1995 Civil Engineering Education Conference Denver. New York, USA: ASCE, Position Paper # 70, 45.

CYWINSKI Z. Theory and practice in civil engineering education. In Proceedings of the CIB W89 Symposium "Construction/Building Education and Research Beyond 2000". Orlando, USA: University of Florida, 1995, 439-445.

CYWINSKI Z. The conflict of theory and practice in civil engineering education. In Proceedings of the International Congress of Engineering Deans and Industry Leaders. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University, 1995, 298-303.

CYWINSKI Z. Civil engineering heritage in construction education and research. In Abstracts of the CIB W89 International Conference "Construction Modernization and Education". Beijing, China: Ministry of Construction, 1996, 19-20.

CYWINSKI Z. On professional activities of the civil engineer (in Polish). Inzynieria i Budownictwo, 1997, 9, 462-463.

CYWINSKI Z. Humanities & arts - essential agents of contemporary engineering education. In Proceedings of the SEFI Annual Conference "Humanities and Arts in a Balanced Engineering Education". Cracow, Poland: European Society for Engineering Education, 1997, 22-35.

CYWINSKI Z. Education of structural engineers for the 21st century. In Proceedings of the Structural Engineers World Congress. San Francisco, USA: Structural Engineering Institute of the ASCE, 1998, 58; CD ROM P316-4, 7 pp.

CYWINSKI Z. Crossroads of industry oriented engineering education. In Proceedings of the Global Congress on Engineering Education. Cracow, Poland: University of Mining & Metallurgy, 1998, 464-468.