Engineering education ‘must move on from traditional roles’

Australia’s universities must change their engineering courses to include a greater range of technical skills, policy knowledge and critical thinking, according to a review commissioned by a group of the country’s leading engineering academics.

The Australian Council of Engineering Deans suggests that engineering courses could be “reimagined as a new liberal arts degree with a problem-solving and design focus”.

The review says that although Australia’s engineering education system “has served the country well in the past”, it must change to meet future expectations and needs in areas such as robotics, urban infrastructure and environmental management systems.