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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