Toolkit for Universities
The Engineering Council is leading a ‘practice transfer partnership’ project to develop a toolkit that will enable further universities to offer engineering gateways type degrees. Funding has been provided for this work by the National HE STEM Programme as part of its workforce development programme.
The Engineering Council’s project proposal focused on identifying successful practice amongst the universities that already offer the MSc or Bachelors in Professional Engineering, as well as finding out what other universities would find most useful to get started.
The five universities currently delivering engineering gateways degrees - Aston, Kingston, Hertfordshire, Northumbria and Staffordshire – are contributing materials and experience, and acting as mentors to the adopter universities.
The five universities recruited as ‘adopters’ of the practice are: Coventry, Derby, Greenwich, Leeds Metropolitan and the University of the West of England. The aim is for each to be in a position to offer engineering gateways degrees later in 2012. Adopter case studies are being developed.
The partnership will incorporate relevant practice from the University of Westminster’s work-based learning maturity toolkit and experience from Leeds Metropolitan University’s ‘Knowledge Exchange Network’ model for employer engagement. The Centre for Engineering and Design Education (CEDE) at Loughborough University is involved in developing the toolkit.
The overall aim is for the flexible work-based approach to be embedded more widely in engineering HE so that more individuals can work towards becoming registered as IEng or CEng whilst in work. The project runs from August 2011 to July 2012 and is led by Deborah Seddon at the Engineering Council supported by Hal Igarashi for the HE STEM programme, based at the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The published toolkit will reside with the Engineering Council and be widely disseminated.
For further details, contact Deborah Seddon at the Engineering Council dseddon@engc.org.uk
