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Visiting Professors' Scheme
Visiting Professors in Integrated System Design: Background to the Scheme
The traditional model of
engineering education is discipline specific, with a
strong emphasis on the engineering science of that
discipline. It was previously expected that
graduates would work within their specialism, often
to specifications and requirements that were handed
down from third parties. The reality of today’s
workplace is that employers (particularly the larger
ones) expect graduates to join multi-functional
teams engaged in the development of complex system
projects, for which graduates of traditional
mono-discipline degree courses might feel ill
prepared. Even amongst smaller companies, there is
still a need for graduates who can work across
disciplines and who can integrate technologies
allied to different disciplines.
The Royal Academy of
Engineering believes that the undergraduate syllabus
can be enhanced to better prepare the graduate for
an industrial career, without compromising the
intellectual rigour of a single discipline course.
Our vision is that engineering students can be given
an understanding of the importance of systems
thinking and a whole product holistic appreciation,
before being limited by the confines of a narrow
field of study. We see system integration as
something that should permeate the thought processes
and procedures of all engineering designers, not
something that should be addressed at the end of the
design as part of a “tidying up exercise”.
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