Engineering: turning ideas into reality - Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee Contents


Memorandum 73

Supplementary evidence from the Engineering Professors' Council

ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE ON ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR ENGINEERING DEGREE PROGRAMMES

  The Engineering Professors' Council has produced this information at the request of the Select Committee to inform their inquiry into Engineering. It is based on the three areas which, in our view most require development to secure the future of UK Engineering Education and provide well founded teaching facilities that inspire graduates to work on challenging projects for the future benefit of society. EPC acknowledges that the production of such figures necessarily requires approximation but believes that these figures do represent a fair picture of the investment required.

  Two forms of funding are required. An increase in the annual core funding (the HEFCE funding allowance per engineering student) is needed to ensure that current programmes are adequately supported and provide well founded facilities for the continuing development of programmes for the engineers for the 21st Century (ETB and EPC report[261]; RAEng report[262]).

  Initiative funding is needed to encourage the development of cutting edge programmes that build on the internationally leading research in engineering departments and on the state of art developments in industry. This will ensure that diversity in engineering education is enhanced to meet the global challenges faced by society and produce graduates with world class skills to address those challenges (Leitch report[263] and Sector Skills Agreements[264]).

  This proposal is to properly fund engineering education to develop graduates with cutting edge world class skills who will be inspired to address the global challenges for the future benefit of society and attract the highest quality UK and overseas students.

AREA 1: THE TRUE COST OF TEACHING ENGINEERING (CORE)

  Background: The joint report produced by ETB and EPC in March 2008 shows that a typical engineering department needs at least a 14%* increase in funding in order to maintain its current position. Many departments are running in deficit on their HEFCE funded provision such that some departments can only survive because they attract high levels of overseas student income. This is not seen as sustainable in the long-term. ETB and HEFCE have both identified engineering as "at risk". The difference is that HEFCE have limited the at risk subjects to chemical engineering, materials, chemistry and physics whereas ETB show that, in general, all of engineering disciplines are at risk.

  Justification: Our figure is based on the number of engineering students as a percentage of the total student population and the allocation of funds by HEFCE to universities. It equates to £1000 per student per annum, the figure currently used by HEFCE for subjects at risk. This additional funding should be directed towards all engineering students because as the ETB and SSC reports show there are skill shortages in all branches of engineering and as HEFCE and ETB show engineering, in general, is at risk.

  Total: £110m per annum targeted at engineering departments.

AREA 2: EDUCATING ENGINEERS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (CORE)

  Background: Teaching facilities (equipment and computing) need to be of industry standard, continually updated and maintained. "One-off" initiatives do not achieve this. The facilities need to be supported by trained specialist technical staff. This will enhance the students' experience and help them prepare for the world of work meeting the needs of industry, a key requirement of the Sector Skills Agreements and the Leitch Review.

  Justification: Area 1 (The True Cost of Teaching Engineering) ensures that the current engineering programmes are properly funded. They do not, however, ensure that the programmes are developed to meet the global challenges indentified in the RAEng and the Leitch reports. Area 2 funds are based on a further £2000 per student per annum to provide well founded teaching laboratories and computing facilities which are properly staffed and maintained, and continually updated. They will cover the costs for learning spaces for team work, design activities, and construction and manufacturing activities; additional technical staff dedicated to hands on activity; costs of resourcing hands on activities; and costs to fund increased industrial engagement. The aim is to give students the experience of working with the state of the art technology that they would expect to encounter in industry. This will help to inspire them to want to use the world class skills they have developed to deal with the global challenges faced by society.

  Total: £240m per annum aligned with the number of engineering students and targeted at engineering departments.

AREA 3: DEGREE PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT (INITIATIVE)

  Background: The need to develop programmes that meet the needs of industry (SSC), the development of programmes that meet the challenges of the future (RAEng) and the need to develop graduates with world class skills (Leitch review) should be met by core funding for the true cost of engineering education and educating engineers for the 21st century (Areas 1 and 2). This will ensure that students are inspired to develop world class skills within a challenging environment. However, to ensure that engineering education in the UK is world leading and therefore attracts the highest quality UK and overseas students, thus ensuring a supply of graduates with cutting edge world class skills, there is a need for research informed teaching to inspire students and to ensure that engineering graduates are familiar with internationally leading developments in industry. The Roberts Review led to substantial funds being released to develop university facilities and much of this expenditure has focussed on research. There is, however, a clear need to provide well founded laboratories enabling research as part of the learning experience in engineering. This will ensure that not only do we develop world class skills amongst our engineering graduates but those skills are at the cutting edge technologically.

  Justification: Our figure is based on 50% of the engineering departments (in 80 universities) bidding to develop research teaching facilities over a ten year period. Although engineering laboratories are now used to some extent to support both teaching and research, engineering teaching does require dedicated state of the art laboratories which are of industry standard and research enabled. There have been a number of major periods of investment (eg the era of the white heat of technology) but much of the equipment in current use in universities does not compare with the best in industry. This is especially important now because of the rapidly developing products and processes in engineering. This is an investment in ensuring "well founded" laboratories for high quality research teaching at the forefront of technological development where students can work on exciting, challenging projects. This will further inspire them to tackle the engineering challenges for the future well-being of society and place the UK at the forefront of engineering education.

  Total: £800m over 10 years. Ideally, this should be front loaded with the major portion being made available in the first five years.

  The Engineering Professors' Council represents the interests of engineering in higher education. It has over 1600 members in virtually all of the UK universities that teach engineering. They are all either professors or Heads of departments. It has as its mission the promotion of excellence in engineering higher education teaching and research.

June 2008







261   ETB and EPC (2008) Back

262   RAEng (2007) Back

263   Leitch (2007) Back

264   Sector Skills Agreements Back


 
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