UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
We’re Re-Imagining
Engineering Education
Our vision is for a stronger
engineering profession,
serving the needs of society
and the economy.
We will work collaboratively
to research and test new models
for inspiring and educating
the engineers of the future.
“ Engineering is at the very centre of our ability to address
global social, environmental, economic and human welfare
challenges. It is critical to innovation and growth within the UK
and internationally. Our capacity to deliver solutions to these
challenges is dependent upon engineering education and skills
at all levels. It is also dependent upon the supply of talent to
engineering and hence on diversity and openness.”
Anthony Finkelstein
UCL Dean of Engineering Sciences
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“ For me, the Centre’s USP and its driver for
success is the partnership between UCL’s
Faculties of Education and Engineering.
Working together, we have the skills and
experience necessary to bring a fresh view
on how we attract and nurture engineering
talent to meet the needs of the 21st Century.”
Paul Greening
Centre Director
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
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Introduction
What we are attempting is ambitious and novel. We are treating
Engineering Education broadly to encompass routes into, and support
throughout, a career in engineering. Our belief is that it is necessary to
look at the big picture to enable us to identify employers’ changing skill
needs and to explore, develop and evaluate educational paradigm-shifting
initiatives that facilitate the development of those skill needs. The vast
combined expertise of the Institution of Education and the Faculty of
Engineering Sciences enables us to take on such a broad challenge.
There is a universal acknowledgement
that we are not attracting enough diverse
talent into the engineering profession.
We want to ask some searching questions
and to throw down the challenge to the
profession to be prepared to think differently.
We must also recognise that the needs
of industry are changing ever more rapidly.
Why, for example, do we continue to ignore the
apparently enormous opportunities offered by
Design and Technology as a breeding ground
for engineering talent? To make progress in this
area will require a dialogue between schools,
colleges, industry, universities and policy
makers. The Centre provides a uniquely
good environment for this to happen.
To address these issues we believe that
it is both important and necessary to
challenge the status quo.
“ Engineering, like all other
professions, is continually
reconsidering how to support
engineers’ ‘lifelong’ learning.
We will support this goal by
facilitating the knowledge
exchange of research on
educational and skill issues
nationally and globally.”
Chris Husbands
Director of the UCL Institute of Education
UCL Vice Provost (Academic Development)
Apprenticeship at Level 3 have always
been popular and successful, though
government reviews mean they are always
subject to change. The emergence of higher
apprenticeships, however, offers a new
opportunity for engineering employers
and Further and Higher Education to work
together. We are committed to supporting
policy makers in strengthening Advanced
and Higher Apprenticeships to provide
multiple and flexible routes into the profession.
Closer to home, we are interested in exploring
whether admission requirements into engineering
degree programmes are fit for purpose. Based
on evidence gathered at UCL, the Centre will
promote widely the view that there is potentially
huge value in opening-up engineering to talented
all-rounders, including those who chose not
to pursue Maths/Physics to A2 level.
The relationship between higher education
and the engineering profession provides
another potentially fertile area for exploration.
David Guile
Centre Director
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“ The success of the engineering profession matters to all of us in so many
ways, and we need far more engineers from a far wider range of backgrounds.
How we recruit, educate and engineers matters just as much. The UCL
Centre for Engineering Education has the potential not just to contribute
to the development of engineering but to provide a model for thinking about
the education of the professions.”
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
We will also contribute to the debate
around effectiveness of the huge number of
programmes and schemes which promote
Engineering and STEM in general to under 19s.
The Centre usefully, and unusually, spans
between different areas of engineering
education. For example we are equally
comfortable with talking about educating
engineers in the workplace, in schools and
colleges as well as in Higher Education.
We believe that this will help to bring forward
new routes into the engineering profession.
We believe that the pipeline model for
characterising the flow of talent into the
profession might be re-imagined. Surely we
must be open to new pathways to give us
access to new sources of talent.
We are at the start of our journey.
We hope that you will join us on our quest
for a holistic re-imagining of engineering
education for the needs of the 21st Century.
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Research & Funding
An MSc in Engineering & Education
We are first and foremost a research
organisation and have several threads
of ongoing work and are in discussions
about others.
This new programme is designed to meet
the needs of engineering lecturers or
professional engineers to support the
development of 21st century engineering
skills in education or the workplace.
Despite the manifest threat to the UK economy
from a shortfall in engineering talent, the
funding environment for engineering education
research is challenging. Similarly Engineering
Education as a field of academic study is
poorly recognised. We aim to lobby for change
on both fronts is we – and others – are to
provide authoritative voices for new models
of engineering education.
The MSc will be open for business from
September 2015 and will offer flexible modes
of studying.
We expect the programme will be of interest
to those with an engineering background
who work in an education setting.
It will offer a core module in Engineering and
Education with the chance to choose optional
modules from the Institute of Education and
the Faculty of Engineering Sciences.
Research Portfolio: April 2015
Knowledge Development
& Professional Formation
Engineering Council
Aiming to map the development of underpinning
knowledge on different routes to becoming a
Chartered Engineer.
Developing Workshop Skills
in Engineering Graduates
Private Donation
A small scale test of the hypothesis that learning in
HE is enhanced by hands on workshop activities.
Enhancing STEM Teaching at Level 3
Gatsby Foundation
This research is identifying best practice in learning
and teaching in SET areas at Level 3. Gatsby will use
the insights to offer enhanced training routes for staff
involved with the training of SET technicians.
Science, Technology, Engineering
& Mathematics: Teach Too
Education & Training Foundation
This research is identifying how to use ‘dual
professionals’ (occupational experts teaching their
expertise) to enhance Level 3 and 4 vocational
programmes.
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Promoting Progression
to Engineering Degrees
IOE/UCL Strategic Partnership
Research Innovation Fund
This project undertook a scoping exercise to identify
a number of engineering curriculum and pedagogic
issues that Centre for Engineering Education could
consider investigating before or after its launch.
Redefining Academic & Professional
Accreditation in Masters Level Programmes,
IOE/UCL Strategic Partnership
Research Innovation Fund
Comparing the approaches to professional
accreditation across Medicine, Teaching,
Engineering and Creative Arts. A planned seminar
on inter-professional issues has arisen out of
the collaboration.
Inter-Professional Working in Engineering
ESRC
This research is investigating the way in which
engineers learn in project teams how to work
effectively with other professional groups and
clients, and how engineering companies share
that knowledge to develop future capability
and capacity.
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
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The Team
The Centre benefits from a broad
range of support and input, both
internally and externally. With naturally
a strong foundation in education and
engineering, our team’s backgrounds
are wide ranging.
Holding the
Conversation
The Centre brings together – and draws
on the capabilities of – a wide range of UCL
academic staff who share an interest in
Engineering Education. This includes the
Deans and senior faculty members from
both the Education and Engineering Faculties.
The growing roster of Centre members
along with their areas of expertise can be
found on our website.
We are exploring opening membership of
the Centre to colleagues outside of UCL.
We are in a uniquely strong position to
bring together engineering educators
from all sectors, industry, professional
bodies and policy makers.
We will do this initially though a series
of curated events which lead on to
funded research projects which in turn
lead to suggested changes to policy.
The first of these will focus on Advanced
Apprenticeships. Further information can
be found on our website.
Future themes include:
• Educational Technology
for Engineering Education
• HE / Industry Links
• Emerging New Models
in Engineering Education
Paul Greening is Senior Lecturer in
Structural Engineering. He was part
of the team which introduced a new
approach to educating civil engineers
at UCL from 2006 and oversaw the
‘no maths/physics required’ policy.
He received a Provosts teaching
award in 2011.
He is interested in working more
closely with a broad range of
engineering educators and exploring
new routes into the profession.
The process by which people become
professional engineers interests
him and in particular the interface
between HE and the workplace.
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David Guile is Professor of Education
and Work, Head of the Department of
Lifelong and Comparative Education,
for UCL’s Institute of Education, and
a member of the ESRC Research
Centre – Learning and Life Chances in
Knowledge Economies and Societies,
and also Co-Director of UCL’s Centre
for Engineering Education.
His primary research interests are
in professional, vocational and
workplace learning, including
apprenticeship, internship, and
interprofessional activity.
Paula Broome is the Centre
Coordinator. Her expertise lies
in setting up new Centres within
universities, previously working at
Queen Mary, University of London
for 5 years.
She also has experience in Project
Management, Quality Assurance
and event planning.
She is the main point of contact for
the centre and can be reached at:
p.broome@ucl.ac.uk
Currently, he is investigating via
a ESRC grant interprofessional
working and learning in global
engineering company.
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
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A Home at UCL East
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will
become the permanent home for the
Centre from 2019. We will be centre stage
in UCL East, which itself is part of a new
cultural complex at the Park dubbed
Olympicopolis by the Mayor of London.
UCL will base a significant component of
the ‘practical’ and design elements of its
own Integrated Engineering Programme
(IEP) within the new facilities thus providing
a core to the activities and supporting
efficient utilisation.
In an iconic location beneath the ArcelorMittal
Orbit and adjacent to the former Olympic
stadium, we will do some amazing things.
Based on facilities which support ‘experiential’
engineering education, it will be both a locus
for educational provision and an advanced
research environment. The UCL/IOE Centre
for Engineering Education will provide national
facilities for engagement and for trialling new
approaches. We aim to be the principal locus
for engineering education innovation in Europe.
UCL students, both undergraduate and
postgraduate, will be directly involved in
programmes of mentoring, demonstrating
and teaching for school children and will
learn alongside students following elements
of a vocational programme. This integration
is a key part of our committed approach
to the unity of engineering education.
The facilities developed as part of the
Centre will include: education laboratories,
configurable collaborative workspaces, virtual
engineering design capabilities supported
by immersive technology, prototyping and
collaboration areas.
To achieve this vision, we will need to
engage with a wide range of stakeholders.
These include education partners, the local
community and the engineering industry.
We will be part of UCL East (shaded) at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Imagery courtesy of London Legacy Development Corporation
“ This is an incredibly exciting time for engineering and the UK is highly
regarded for the quality of the engineers it creates. To maintain this global
position we need to continuously develop our understanding of what makes
great engineers and we need to improve the way we educate engineers and
technicians at all levels. The new UCL Centre for Engineering Education will
provide fresh thinking on how we train our future engineers and support the
UK’s ambition of leading the world in engineering education.”
Rhys Morgan
Director of Education
Royal Academy of Engineering
A hub of cultural interaction
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Vision of proposed facilities
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
UCL CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION
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LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY
UCL Centre for Engineering Education
Engineering Front Building
Room 2.09, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE
Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 5714
Email: centreforengedu@ucl.ac.uk
www.ucl.ac.uk/centre-for-engineering-education
@Centre4EngEdu #CEEbuzz
centreforengineeringeducation