Achieving excellence in engineering education: the ingredients of successful change March 2012 Achieving excellence in engineering education: the ingredients of successful change Achieving excellence in engineering education: the ingredients of successful change March 2012 © The Royal Academy of Engineering, 2012 ISBN 1-903496-83-7 March 2012 Published by The Royal Academy of Engineering 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG Tel: 020 7766 0600 Fax: 020 7930 1549 www.raeng.org.uk Registered Charity Number: 293074 A copy of this report is available online at www.raeng.org.uk/change Author Dr Ruth Graham Grateful thanks The time given by those interviewed and by the staff at the institutions described in the case studies is gratefully acknowledged. The author thanks Professor Helen Atkinson FREng, Professor Edward Crawley FREng, Professor Peter Goodhew FREng and Professor David Nethercot FREng for their technical advice, guidance and oversight and Kristina Edström and Karl Smith for their help with proof reading the drafts. This report was jointly funded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The Royal Academy of Engineering. ii Foreword No profession unleashes the spirit of innovation like engineering. From research to real-world applications, engineers constantly discover how to improve our lives by creating bold new solutions that connect science to life in unexpected, forward-thinking ways. Few professions turn so many ideas into so many realities. Few have such a direct and positive effect on people’s everyday lives. We are counting on engineers and their imaginations to help us meet the needs of the 21st century. Changing the conversation – messages for improving public understanding of engineering, National Academy of Engineering, 2008 Engineering is vital to successful, sustainable civilisation. So much rests on the shoulders of future generations of engineers that we must give them the best possible foundation to their professional lives. This means ensuring that engineering graduates can apply theoretical knowledge to industrial problems as well as exhibit theoretical understanding, creativity and innovation, team-working, technical breadth and business skills. To do this, engineering degree programmes must keep pace with the changing requirements of industry, with much more interaction between departments and industry. We call this experience led engineering education and The Royal Academy has defined this in a series of reports going back to 2006. This latest report goes beyond asking what to change or why and asks how successful and sustainable change has been achieved by engineering faculty around the world. It is essential reading for everyone responsible for the education of the next generation of engineers. Professor Edward Crawley FREng Dr David Grant FREng President Vice Chancellor The Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Cardiff University 1 Achieving excellence in engineering education: the ingredients of successful change Executive summary A series of reports from The Royal Academy of Engineering systemic reform being both successfully implemented and (The Royal Academy of Engineering, 2006, 2007, 2010) has sustained. A number of other common contextual factors demonstrated that change in undergraduate engineering are shared by successful change programmes. For example, education is urgently needed to ensure graduates remain they are much more likely to involve faculty with industry equipped for the new and complex challenges of the 21st experience and/or newly-hired faculty, often replacing those century. However, the necessary transformation in the retiring. Also, in a surprising number of cases, the leaders of structure and delivery of undergraduate provision has yet to successful curriculum-wide change have experienced failure take place across the sector. There is a growing appreciation in prior attempts to make isolated changes at the course level, that the slow pace of change reflects the difficulties of from which they concluded that “change needed to be radical catalysing and sustaining educational reform within and widespread for it to stick”. engineering departments and schools. The case for reform is recognised; the challenge is to make it happen. The pressing Secondly, a number of common features are apparent issue for engineering education is not whether but how in the educational design of successful programmes of to change. change. Success appears to be associated with the extent to which the change is embedded into a coherent and The report turns the spotlight on this issue. It examines how interconnected curriculum structure. The study identified positive change can be achieved across the engineering numerous examples of ambitious reform that had ultimately curriculum, looking specifically at how reform can be initiated, failed due to their curricular isolation and reliance on implemented and sustained within engineering departments one or two faculty members. Almost without exception, and schools. successful and sustainable change starts with a fundamental assessment of the curriculum-wide goals and involves a The report draws on the experiences of those involved in high-level re-alignment of the entire curriculum structure in major programmes of engineering education reform across which a cross section of faculty are involved. This successful the world with the aim of distilling the common features approach to educational design appears to be independent of success and failure. A two stage study was conducted of the scale of change undertaken. Indeed, most successful between January and October 2011. Firstly, interviews were ‘curriculum-wide’ changes typically only involve the conducted with 70 international experts from 15 countries, creation of a relatively small number of new courses – each with first-hand experience of curriculum change in usually less than 20% of the curriculum. What distinguishes engineering. The interviews provided insight into a wide them, however, is the extent to which the changes are range of examples of curricular reform from across the world, interconnected within a re-designed coherent curriculum offering a high-level view of the features associated with structure with multiple horizontal and vertical dependencies. successful and unsuccessful reform. Secondly, six examples The vast majority of successful change programmes were selected from those identified through the expert considered in this study have also sought to create a new interviews to investigate in detail how significant educational ‘brand’ for their educational approach, and one that aspires reform can be achieved. The six case studies are all highly- to set a benchmark for national or international engineering regarded, selected to provide a spectrum of drivers for reform, education practice. This status, as a potential world-leader, is change strategies, levels of ambition, geographical locations one that supports continued faculty engagement with the and stages in the change process. A further 117 individuals reform process. were consulted for these case studies. Thirdly, the department appears to be the engine of The study identifies four common features of successful, change, with the sustained commitment of the Department widespread change that appear to be largely independent Head being a critical factor in its success. Regardless of the of geography or institution type. These are discussed in scale of the planned change (from a school-wide effort to turn below. a small cluster of courses), the successful changes were Firstly, successful systemic change is often initiated in consistently identified as those that had taken a department- response to a common set of circumstances. In contrast to wide approach to the reform. For example, amongst the course-level (in the UK, module level) changes, which are school-wide reforms considered in this study, long-term often driven by persuasive pedagogical evidence or national successful curricular changes are confined to individual calls for a new ‘breed’ of engineer, successful widespread departments, with very limited diffusion of good practice changes are usually triggered by significant threats to the outside their boundaries. The pivotal role played by the Head market position of the department/school. The issues faced of Department in successful change is also a major finding are strongly apparent to faculty and, in some cases, university of the study. Almost without exception, successful changes management have stipulated that a fundamental change are energetically supported by the Department Head, who is necessary for the long-term survival of the programme invariably is also the leader or co-leader of the change. This and/or department. Typical issues include problems with individual is typically internally appointed and very highly recruitment, retention and employability. The urgent and regarded in both their research and teaching activities. A long- fundamental nature of these problems creates both a standing trust in the Department Head amongst a core of widespread acknowledgement that educational change faculty often leads to a widespread belief that their efforts is unavoidable, and a collegiality and common purpose in the educational change would be valued and a belief amongst faculty in achieving the curriculum-wide reform. that this individual would “fight our case” during promotions These conditions appear to vastly increase the chances of procedures. 2 Finally, the study highlights significant