ENGINEERING CURRICULA FOR ENHANCEMENT OF HUMAN CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

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ENGINEERING CURRICULA FOR ENHANCEMENT OF HUMAN
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

• FUNSO FALADE, PhD
• DEPT. OF CIVIL ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
• UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS
• AKOKA, LAGOS, NIGERIA
• ffalade_at_hotmail.com

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• The training and preparation of engineers are
  carried out in the Universities.
• The prospective candidates are generally expected
  to have requisite qualifications

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Fig 1 Knowledge Acquisition Processes in Science
and Technology
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• The main features of the existing curricula are
  
• Common foundation years at 100 and 200 levels
• for all engineering disciplines
• Workshop practice, laboratory work and tutorials
• Design project with bias towards local
  applications
• Broad-based engineering and interaction between
  students and professionals
• Special skills and in-depth study in a particular
  area of the programme through optional courses or
  electives and
• Knowledge in the area of engineering management,
  economics and law.
• Final year project in which the students work
  alone under supervision

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• Industrial attachment is considered very crucial
  in all engineering programmes
• The aims of the attachment are
• to provide the students with the needed on-
  the-job experience by applying the theories
  learnt in the classrooms to practical problems
• to motivate students and improve their academic
  performance by demonstrating the relevance of
  course content in industrial practice
• to promote the personal development of students
  by increasing their maturity through interacting
  with colleagues and mentors in industry and
  acceptance of professional responsibilities.

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• An Industrial Training Fund (ITF) was established
  in 1971 with the aim of promoting acquisition of
  skills in industry and with a view to generating
  a pool of indigenous skilled manpower sufficient
  to meet the needs of the Nigerian economy.
• Each University has its own Industrial Liaison
  Unit which ensures that
• students are appropriately placed for the
  industrial attachment and
• students are supervised by their lecturers

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• The maximum stipulated duration of Industrial
  attachment is 40 weeks comprising the following
  modules
• students work experience programme scheme I- 8
  weeks (long vacation at the end of 200 level),
• students industrial work experience - 8 weeks
  (long vacation after 300 level) and
• students industrial work experience scheme II
  24 weeks (2nd semester of 400 level plus long
  vacation).

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• The curriculum of a subject with practical
  content is generally organized into an average
• of 67 for the theoretical classes and 33 for
  laboratory. Students also use the laboratory to
  develop case examples on their own time.
• The problems associated with the current
• curricula are
• they are based on a foreign model which has
  evolved under ideal conditions (staff, equipment,
  infrastructure, training opportunities, etc) that
  are not easily duplicated in developing
  countries

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• there is usually a shortage of highly competent
  indigenous teaching and support staff with
  sufficiently wide practical experience of
  engineering
• most of the available textbooks are often
  illustrated with examples from outside the local
  environment and which are irrelevant to the
  particular country
• the curricula are adjoined to be too academic and
  overloaded with intellectual content in pure
  science and mathematics at the expense of basic
  engineering and technology and

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• inadequate provision for humanities, social
  sciences, business management concepts and
  entrepreneurship skills development. Because of
  the inadequate preparation of the students for
  the industry, some employers retrain the graduate
  to make them employable in their organizations.

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CONSTRAINTS

• Some of the constraints that could hinder
  capacity building in engineering are
• Funding
• Inadequate Facility
• Lack of Capacity Building Programme
• Weak University-Industry Partnership
• Lack of political will by the government
• Accreditation Processes
• NUC
• COREN

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PROSPECTS FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

• Despite all the constraints listed above, there
  are indications that the low human capacity
  development will be improves considering the
  following positive steps being taken by the
  stakeholders
• Curriculum Reform
• - The NUC has commenced its major reform which is
  contained in a document tagged Academic Minimum
  Benchmark for all courses in the universities
  including engineering.

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• Funding
• - Inadequate funding is the major problem in
  engineering education as the other shortcomings
  are direct manifestation of poor funding.

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Industry
Knowledge Skill and Endogenous Technology
Finance
Staff welfare Facility Development and Maintenance
Internally Generation Revenue
Subvention
Government
University
National Development Innovation and Invention
Finance
Quality Students Performance
Finance
Endowment
Enabling Environment
Fig 2. Interactive Funding Model and Performance
Feedback
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• Facilities
• The poor state of the facilities is a direct
  manifestation of inadequate funding. With
  increase in funding level and other strategies
  e.g endowment and participation of private
  sector, there will be improvement in the
  facilities both quantitatively and qualitatively.
  
• Establishment of Technological Entrepreneurship
  and Innovation Centers
• - It was reported that the Federal Government
  would establish 50 innovation centres across the
  country.

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• Promotion of Linkage between Universities,
  Research Institutes and Technology Incubation
  Centers.
• - Research and development for its own sake is
  not useful unless it results in marketable
  inventions. Good partnership between the
  producers of knowledge and the users of knowledge
  will enable the products of research to be
  accessed by interested investors thus
  facilitating the much needed awareness and
  adoption of research findings by Small and Medium
  Industries (SMI) leading to effective
  commercialization of research results and
  industrial growth.

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• Reform in the Industrial Sector
• The adoption of production method that is based
  on endogenous technology rather than expensive
  foreign technology by the industrial sector will
  reduce the production cost thus increasing the
• demand for their products
• improvement in standard of living
• high turn-over and
• expansion in the industrial sector.

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• There must be a deliberate decision to take
  problems in the industry to the University for
  necessary solutions. Such efforts will provide
• challenges for the university Lecturers
• reduce the cost of providing the solutions if
  such problems are taken to foreign countries
• conserve foreign exchange and
• result in growth in both sectors. Utilization of
  local raw materials where feasible will further
  reduce production cost.

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• Reform in Government Policy
• Governments determination to create enabling
  environment for both university and industry to
  operate will ensure the flow of knowledge,
  information and resources from universities to
  the industries and vice versa.
• University/Industry Government Roundtable
• - In order to encourage industry, university and
  government cooperation for the reform of
  engineering education and promotion of technology
  transfer to industry, there is need to establish
  a voluntary and non-governmental organizations in
  the country.

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• Information and Communication Technology
• The use of Information and Communication
  Technologies (ICT) for networking between the
  stakeholders would assist the transfer of new
  technologies from university to the industry on
  one hand and delivery of problems from industry
  to the university on the other hand.
• Development of Entrepreneurship Skill
• - The new curriculum envisioned by the National
  Universities Commission is to have
  entrepreneurship studies as its integral part.
  The new breed engineer or engineer entrepreneur
  will possess an adequate knowledge of core
  engineering and demonstrable technical
  competence.

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• Developing a Sustainable University/Industry
  Partnership
• In order to sustain the relationship between
  university and industry, there is need for a
  consistent flow of knowledge from university to
  industry and the industry should use university
  as a solution ground for industrial related
  problems.
• Continuing professional development
• This consists of acquisition of this through
  problem following in the work place and
  continuous upgrading of knowledge through
  attendance at professional courses/seminars/worksh
  ops. It also includes participation in research
  and development efforts.

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• CONCLUSIONS
• From the foregoing the following conclusions
• are made
• Reform in engineering curricula is highly
  necessary. The preparation of the curricula
  should be in consultation with the stakeholders,
  namely, Members of academic community, industry
  leaders (Users), Professional bodies (Regulators)
  Employers Association, Major Employers
  associated with specific programme to make the
  effort a worthwhile exercise.

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• The restructuring of curriculum can not be
  considered in isolation without considering those
  factors that will ensure positive outcome.
• Both university and industry have problems that
  hinder their abilities to meet up with challenges
  posed by the requirements for development.

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• Reform is required in both sectors (university
  and industry) to make them work together with a
  view to formulating appropriate strategies for
  national development.
• Effective collaboration between the duo will
  translate to go training of engineering graduates
  that will be better prepared for the future
  challenges.
• The relationship between university and industry
  could only be sustained if government creates an
  enabling environment.

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Thank You and God Bless