Memorandum 53
Submission from CEESI-Training
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. A collaboration between industry and
eleven universities has been running since 2001 and has benefited
a significant proportion of electronics design engineers working
in the UK, particularly those working in small companies (SMEs).
Badged CEESI-Training, it is a success story that is well-known
within the electronics industry and the electronics departments
of universities. Now it continues to attract new university partners
as its simple structure sidesteps many of the barriers to collaboration
and sharing. The Memorandum of Agreement linking the partners
together has proved to be durable yet able to accommodate change.
2. For all these reasons the partners of
CEESI-Training commend this model to the committee for further
investigation. We recommend the model could find application in
other branches of engineering and even in other science disciplines.
CEESI-Training is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC).
BRIEF INTRODUCTION
3. This submission has been prepared by
the following people:
| Professor Ted Pritchard
| Co-ordinator of CEESI-Training. Previously Head of Dept. at University of Huddersfield and advisor to DTI.
|
| Mr David Rees | Chairman of CEESI Management Board, Seer Consultants.
|
| Roy Attwood | Co-ordinator of postgraduate distance learning courses in electronics from the University of Bolton. Previously a design engineer with Philips Electronics.
|
All the above are Chartered Electrical Engineers with many
years experience of academe and industry.
4. This evidence concerns the role of universities in
promoting engineering skills and developing careers in engineering.
It refers to the development of skills at postgraduate level,
including continuing professional development.
FACTUAL INFORMATION
Background
5. The electronics design industry is relatively modest
in size but its unique position at the head of the electronics
supply chain makes it critical to the economy as a whole. Entire
industries, factories or product ranges can result from the work
of a small team of design and development engineers.
6. In 2000 the UK microelectronics industry, represented
by the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI), concluded that
UK universities were either not developing the courses they most
needed, or they were not delivering courses in ways that made
them accessible to people with normal work commitments. Hence
the universities were not helping sufficiently to address the
looming "skills gap" in the UK.
7. There are two main reasons how this state of affairs
had come about. Firstly, the postgraduate operations within universities
were still concentrating on MSc courses of 12 months duration,
studied full time. Such courses had thrived when grants were available
for postgraduate study. Now, in response to changed circumstances,
universities were filling their places predominantly from overseas,
and the majority of students returned home afterwards. Secondly,
the way research was assessed for funding (the RAE) forced departments
to become more specialised, making it difficult for any one university
to offer the breadth of coverage that industry now required. Many
universities were indeed out of touch with the needs of the modern
UK innovators, the SMEs.
8. A series of meetings took place within the industry
to define what was required and universities were then invited
to respond. A group of universities rose to the challenge and,
together with the NMI, put a proposal to the Engineering and Physical
Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to form a collaboration, to
be called CEESI[234].
EPSRC agreed to fund the first few years of the CEESI programme
under its Masters Training Programme (MTP), and since then has
extended funding as a Collaborative Training Account (CTA) through
the University of Bolton.
What is CEESI-Training?
9. CEESI-Training is a collaboration between eleven UK
universities, all running part time MSc courses studied partly
by distance learning. A "pool" of 44 modules has been
defined and within certain limits students can choose to study
any of the modules in the pool. The MSc award is made by the university
that supervises the major piece of work, the MSc Project. In this
way students have more flexibility and security than they would
if they were limited to only one university. The scheme works
by the universities agreeing to transfer academic credits earned
through CEESI-approved modules.
10. Students may choose to study one or more modules
for continuing professional development (CPD) or may choose to
go further and eventually gain an MSc from one of the partners.
In practice students tend to study mostly with one university,
but add a few specialist modules from one or two other institutions.
Students pay only for the module(s) being studied in any one term,
and can take a break before continuing. Bursaries are available
to reduce the cost to eligible students, so financially this way
of working towards a qualification is particularly attractive.
11. The memorandum of agreement signed by each university
requires that:
- each university agrees (within stated limits, typically
50% of a qualification) that it will allow students to import
credits at no cost for CEESI modules studied through partner institutions;
- the CEESI Board can agree to "adopt" new modules
into the CEESI pool;
- the CEESI Board can also accept new member institutions
into the agreement; and
- each module will be taught in part or completely by
distance learning over the internet.
12. The flexibility of the scheme to the students is
the main aspect that persuades universities to sign up to CEESI,
but there are other benefits too. Universities gain from the marketing
undertaken by the consortium as whole and by references from one
partner to another. Meetings between partners provide a sharing
of good practice, formalised in annual workshops organised by
the CEESI Board. Academic staff also welcome the opportunities
to keep in touch with the industry and their customers.
13. The academic partners in CEESI currently are: the
Universities of Bolton, Bradford, Kent, Manchester, Southampton
and Surrey, and the Institute for System Level Integration (iSLI)
representing the Universities of Glasgow, Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh,
and Strathclyde.
14. An indication of the success of the approach adopted
by CEESI is the level of interest shown by universities. The University
of Kent signed the Memorandum of Agreement in December 2007 and
two more universities are actively considering joining.
Collaboration at credit level is key
15. CEESI works so well because the currency of collaboration
is academic credits. Universities are reluctant to share syllabi
or course materials on the grounds of academic freedom. However,
when it comes to academic credits, agreement is possible. Thanks
to the Bologna process of harmonising academic qualifications,
the academic credit framework is now recognised throughout Europe
and in many countries further afield. Repeated inspections by
the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) have led to a consensus of
approach between universities to the point that most are now prepared
to accept the parity of credits at a given level awarded by other
universities. So whilst universities remain reluctant to share,
they are generally willing to recognise credits gained elsewhere.
Effectiveness within the industry
16. CEESI-Training is currently training in excess of
300 electronic design engineers per annum (over 6% of the UK total)
on 44 modules. Since it started in 2001, the collaboration has
trained over 1200 engineers in total (around 25% of the UK total).
This was recognised by the National Microelectronics Institute,
the trade association for the Microelectronics industry in the
UK and Ireland, which in its 2007 Review stated "CEESI continues
to go from strength to strength and sets an impressive standard".
In terms of international recognition, CEESI-Training was awarded
the Education initiative of the Year award at the EuroAsia IC
Industry Awards ceremony in San Francisco in July 2006.
17. Approximately 60% of delegates are from SMEs and
40% from large companies. This high level of engagement by SMEs
is unheard of in any other training initiative and reflects the
flexibility and accessibility of the training provided. Offering
modules for study over the internet on a module by module basis
has proven to be one of very few successful strategies for reaching
SMEs in the UK and therefore represents a significant breakthrough.
18. The Board of Management for CEESI-Training is composed
of representatives of the Universities involved and industrialists
from leading companies including NXP Semiconductors, Cadence DS,
Sony Semiconductors, BAE Systems, Motorola, Filtronic CS and National
Semiconductors. The Chairman and 50% minimum representation must
be from industry. The Board is formally constituted and has its
own terms of reference agreed and written into the Memorandum
of Agreement.
RECOMMENDATIONS
19. The committee might wish to examine in more detail
the innovations inherent in the CEESI-Training collaboration and
the degree to which it is helping to meet the needs of the electronics
industry for continuing professional development. It is possible
that the model could be expanded and improved to have a greater
impact on the electronics skills gap.
20. The CEESI Memorandum of Agreement has already survived
scrutiny by legal teams of 12 universities and can therefore be
proposed as a good starting point for similar collaborations in
other branches of engineering.
March 2008
234
At that time CEESI stood for Continuing Education in Electronics
Systems Integration. Since then, the activities have broadened
and the name has been changed to CEESI-Training. Back
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