"Australasian Journal of Engineering Education", Vol. 6. n°.2, 1995, pp. 115-124
1 - INTRODUCTION
"Engineering education" appeared for the first time as a conceptual and institutional project around the middle of the 18th Century when some institutions like the "Ecole Royale des Ponts et Chaussées" was founded in France (1747). New and original institutions were created and developed at that time in order to meet the needs of European societies for better trained people able to manage the construction of new infrastructures and to contribute to the development of the just growing industry. More than two centuries after, engineering education is largely, worldwidely, recognized as one of the most attractivebranch of higher education, with a huge diversification of educational programmes and institutions.
Nevertheless, engineering education seems today to be questioned or discussed in many countries. Does engineering education really meet the needs of modern societies? Do engineering faculties or schools really educate and train the engineers able to professionally work within more and more complex worlds and contexts? Are they not too much traditional, unable to develop new approaches for the education, the training and the professional and personal develoment of the future engineers?
One important point, today, lies in the necessity and the difficulty to find acceptable and efficient compromises between more and more intricates factors such as education, training, specialized information, methodoly, competitiveness, culture and technology. Are we able to design and build new processes for the transfer of information, knowledge and know-how? Are we able to establish new projects which can abolish institutional as well as disciplinary walls? Are we ready to prepare young generations of engineers able to move and to act within various geographical, cultural and trans-disciplinary situations? Are we willing to educate and train not only efficient individuals but also competitive interdisciplinay teams? Are we ready to encourage new educational projects based on a very contemporary use of modern information technology and methodology and on a responsible vision of the future developments of first and continuing engineering education.
2 - WHAT KINDS OF ENGINEERS?
Depending countries and cultures, one often distinguishes different conceptions of what an engineer is and does and of what kind of roles he or she plays in the society. The development of the first engineering schools and then engineering faculties in Europe helps us to better understand this diversity.
The historical and cultural European diversity
In UK, and generally speaking in the countries influenced by the British tradition, the engineer is often considered or perceived as a "super-technician", able to design, create, build technical objects or manage technical or technological processes. Priority is given to technical and technological knowledges and to the transfer of specialized know-how. Testimonies of the utilitarian approach of engineering education can be observed in the curriculum but also in the reduced lenghth and the narrow specificity of the educational and training process. The professional engineering institutions played and still continue to play an important role: they accredit educational programmes, evaluate engineering faculties, certify professional competencies ("chartered engineers"), publish a lot of specialized books and journals and help in the transfer of knowledge and know-how. But historically, the formal education of engineers within technical universities appeared very late and around hundred years after the first continental European experiences. It means that the education and training of engineers is mainly considered as a true professional responsibility and that academia plays only a secondary role. The Finniston report, published in the early 80's in UK, demonstrated clearly this trend, showed the limits of a too narrow educational process and advocated for another approach. Under these circumstances, the image of the engineer is poor and salaries are very low, compared with continental situations.
In Germany, as well as in many East European and Nordic countries, engineering education is a process really influenced by research activities. Traditionally, and according to Wilhelm Von Humbolt' ideas, research activities should be encouraged and universities should strongly contribute to science developement. Science should be autonoumus and not influenced by political or industrial forces. Under these conditions, the engineer should be exposed to scientific ideas, should be skilled for taking part to research activities. In other words, he or she must be highly specialized in some disciplinary fields. Thus, technical universities play an important role in the scientific world and professors are socially recognized in the German society as "scientific VIPs". Engineering education is provided by technical university to students who can spend 7 to 8 years (or more) for getting their final professional degree. Technical universities are also active in the the field of scientific and technical information and documentation and links with hech-tech companies are often developed.
At the beginning of the 70's, in Germany (but also in many other countries), it was decided to diversify the higher education schemes and to develop what is called the "Fach-Hochschulen". FH are specialized colleges which provide education and training in many fields, especially in the field of engineering. The idea was to prepare new generations of technological engineers, production engineers. The duration of the studies is only 3 years and a half, including training periods in industry. This educational scheme is very successful: two thirds of the graduate German engineers come from Fach-hochschulen. The competition between traditional universities and new FH is now very active but helps industry to find the appropriate engineers.
The French tradition is completely different, but can be observed also in some Mediterranean, Latin-American and African countries. According to the French culture, the engineer is primarly someone who can supply a global answer to social or human needs. He or she plays an important role in the society (generally placed at the top of the socio-professional hierarchy). He or she assembles technics, resources and means in order to appropriately solve the given problem. He or she is more a manager than a technician. Engineering education is mainly a general and multidisciplinary education, with emphasis put on theoretical subjects, methodological knowledges. The engineer is much more a "social being", a social function in the enterprises than a specialized and very narrow technician. To enter engineering education is a very competitive and selective process; entrance examinations to "Grandes Ecoles" are considered in France as the most important event in the life of an engineer. During 5 to 6 years, the future engineer is exposed to very stimulating socio-cognitive influences, but is also taking part to may projects developed by industry. On the contrary to Germany, the French engineer is not so much oriented towards research.
The diversified types of engineers
Questioning engineering education, its present and its future, we have to take into account the fact that there are many ways to consider what is an engineer. We are much more aware now, especially in Europe (due to the move towards a European single market), that it is impossible to consider a unique, universal engineer. We cannot continue to think the management of the educational process with simple ideas, such as we did it during the 60's and the 70's. There is now a large, worldwide market for engineering activities as well as for engineering competencies; industry needs are more and more diversified and can be solved through multiple solutions.
Thus, when recruiting an engineer, a company can choose between different types of engineers:
- a generalist engineer (oriented towards the management of scientif, technical and economical resources) or a more specialized expert (skilled either in high scientific domains or in concrete technological solutions);
- an engineer with scientific, technological or managerial background;
- an engineer with a very disciplinary oriented education or someone with a multi-disciplinary or even more trans-disciplinary oriented mind;
- a fresh or young engineer or a more experienced one;
- someone with a classical first education or a professional with a non-traditional training (through continuing education and training, for instance).
Talking about the future of engineering education, one should now consider this diversity as a fundamental component or factor and one should try to establish processes and institutions which allow such a diversification of aims and of routes.
3 - THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
During the 20 last years new needs for such a diversified engineering education appeared.
Diversification of access conditions to higher education
In many countries, one observed a general tendency which consisted in providing more and more access possibilities to higher education for young people. It is now easy for any good pupil to find a way to University or to any other higher educational institution. Many Universities increased the number of admitted students and in some of them, the free access to higher education implicated new problems in terms of management of the class-room activities. Other possibilities were offered through the diversification of the recruitment routes and through the creation of new institutions. In other words, mass education, diversified education, worldwide education and multi-dimensional education are now key-words that cannot be ignored. A new global management of such diversified access conditions and educational routes should be set-up and developed.
New diversified and appropriate educational programmes
An important trend, that appeared in the beginning of the 70's is the creation and the development of new engineering courses or programmes more oriented towards the industrial production and towards the education and training of engineers more technologically oriented. With the Polytechnics in Great Britain, with the German Fach-hochschulen or also with the French Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT) that all appeared about 1965-1970, a new approach of engineering education was proposed in complement of the traditional way of educating engineers at traditional universities. Thus, we have to considered now a more complex system of engineering education, based on a functional diversification and including two main possibilities: long or higher education oriented towards design, research and/or management on the one hand, shorter and production oriented education on the other hand. To find a good compromise between these two main routes at global or national level is becoming a major issue of the higher education policy.
Postgraduate education: way to specialization
Another trend seemed to progressively appear during the 20 last years, which consisted in the development of a lot of post-graduate complementary courses for engineers. The basic concept behind this evolution refers to the search of a double qualification of the engineer: a first or initial education consisting in a classical Degree or Diplom of Engineer, followed by a short, specialized and complementary course which allows a kind of adaptation to the first job. Such post-graduate or specialized courses are now largely offered on the international formation market. They certainly will facilitate the professional mobility of engineers, disciplinary mobility as well as geographical mobility.
Research and innovation perspectives
During the last period, one also observed an impressive developpement of research activities within technical universities and engineering schools. This evolution is very important for the post-industrial society and for the emerging new technologies. The impregnation of engineering education by research becomes more and more a political objective. New channels or routes for engineering education are proposed which include basic research activities ("formation through research").This trend is more active in classical technical universities and engineering schools. But specialized colleges (such as Fach-Hochschulen) begin to develop attractive R&D programmes. The development of "spin-off" companies besides technical universities, especially at regional level, is also a good testimony of this trend. Nevertheless, there is no obvious testimony of the impact of such a research development on the engineering education improvment.
Continuing engineering education and life-long education
Continuing education was a concern that emerged at the end of the 70's - even if, historically speaking, original approaches were also developped during the 19th Century in Europe - . Engineering schools and faculties, as well as the Engineer's Associations today propose a lot of continuing education modules, courses or programmes to practising engineers. Some of these courses allow individuals to get a true Engineer Diplom or Degree. This route is also very important for technicians who want to become engineers. In other words, continuing engineering education is certainly becoming a key-factor of the competitiveness of our post-industrial societies.
A new international awareness
One could also mention for the 15 or 20 last years a radical transformation of the context of engineering education. The international overture (and especially the intra-European cooperation) becomes the main key-word for higher education development, especially for engineering education. This means a strong emphasis put on foreign languages learning, on students and staff exchanges, on mutual recognition of diplomas and degrees and on joint courses of joint curriculum. The transferability of credits within European higher education networks as well as the delivery of "double" diplomas or degrees are testimonies of this trend. International exchanges are also developed thanks to many regional institutions devoted to engineering education 'AAEE, SEFI, ASEE,...). International conferences and world congresses as well as international journals and publications are now well known and contribute to a better dissemination of knowledge and experience on engineering education.
The emerging information and communication technology
Engineering education was largely influenced during the last decades by the emergence and the development of the information and communication technology. The place and the role of the computer are now obvious. The networks between computers become true educational systems, as well as they offer opportunities to link education, information and research. Many recent conferences on Computer Aided Engineering Education (CAEE) point out the necessity to better integrate this formidable tool in the re-definition of enginering courses and pedagogies. The development of systems that provides higher engineering education through satellites and information and communication networks is now considered as a very positive approach for the future. Self-learning, distance-learning, CAEE,... a new perspective for the next decade.
4 - RESISTANCE TO CHANGES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Despite the fact that important evolutions emerged during the last 20 years in the field of engineering education, there are still many difficulties for imagining and developing in-depth innovations. Engineering education, as many higher education fields, is encline to oppose much resistance to change and to innovation.
The burgeoning development of engineering education
In many countries, engineering institutions that provide now education and training were created, at a given period, for satisfying society and industrial needs. These technical universities or engineering schools or faculties were then considered as determining components of national educational infrastructures. But, the oldest were rapidly imitated by new ones. They also defined specific conditions for their own development and tended to grow and to diversify their programmes and activities. Step by step, a growing disciplinary division appeared with establishment of new barriers between faculties, departments and programmes. At the end of the evolution, each sub-system is becoming more and more autonomous, trying to defend its disciplinary territory without no idea about the global meaning of the educational process.
Thus, in France, many engineering schools were founded during the last decades and new institutions still continue to be created, with the agreement of an official national body (Commission des titres d'ingénieurs). These new engineering schools are more and more specialized in very narrow fields, but seem to have very few resources for developing in-depth R&D or innovative programmes or for designing new educational projects (distance learning modules for instance).
Under these conditions of a burgeoning and often uncontrolled development of engineering education, it becomes more and more difficult to have a global view of the whole educational process and to assemble the forces for a real and profound innovation. Local "agitation" tends to be the rule or standard on a free market of higher education.
Research more attractive than education
Basically, traditional technical universities and engineering schools remain teaching machines, with conceptions of the educational process inherited from the 19th Century. But the disciplinary division of knowledges, the professionalisation of the teaching staff and the growing trend towards mass-education lead faculty people to flee the educational activities and to forget the pedagogical objectives. They prefer to develop noble research activities, which also can provide financial resources and improve the career development. In the United States, in Canada, but also in Germany one seems to be very conscious about this dramatic trend and one often affirms to-day, that the classical technical universities are no more able to educate and train the qualified engineers who are necessary for the modern industry.
Advertisement: a perversion for getting artificial success
But, technical universities, engineering faculties and engineering schools seem to put more and more emphasis on promotional activities and especially on advertisement. They are trying to develop marketing and/or commercial approaches, in order to attract the best students and the key persons (faculty staff, researchers,...) and to obtain sufficient financial resources from industry or from various partners. Sometime, a lot of money is spent on communication campaigns and these important budgets are no more available for other purposes such as pedagogical improvment, curriculum development, teachers training, educational products design or developing countries assistance. The public appearance of the institution is much more important that the capacity to find appropriatesolutions to educational needs of the society (and this is true whatever the kind of institutions, the oldest and well-known ones as well as the new challenging universities or schools). Engineering education (but this is also the case for other higher education sectors) is now sometimes sold like hamburgers or soft drinks. In some countries, engineering education is more and more present on the medias scene, fishing good compliments from journalists and from TV presentators. But what's after?
Difficulties to understand the real society needs
Engineering educational institutions have serious difficulties to understand and take into account the real needs of modern societies. For instance, very few technical universities or engineering faculties are active (in their educational as well as scientific domains) in the improvment of urban conditions whereas big towns and their suburbs are becoming sources of many problems. They are no so much interested to educate and train engineers who can contribute to a sustainable development. And what's about environment and pollution? What's about the malaise of young people in our too formal and structured societies?
If engineering faculties are not able to answer to calls from political or industrial people, the main reason certainly lies in the fact thatthey cannot break their traditions (formalism, corporatism,...). The rarely criticized taught curriculae, the power games behind disciplines territories, the perennity of some corporatist models and an educational system mainly based on the reproductive transfer of knowledge are some of the most important factors that prevent to profound changes of education and training perspectives.
The growing economical constraints
In the same time, technical universities and engineering schools are facing new constrainsts which are generally considered as good reasons for developing some resistance to changes. Budgets, for instance, are decreasing in many institutions, whatever the continents. In America (especially in Canada), in Europe (especially in UK, but also in the Netherlands, in Germany and in the East-European countries), in Africa (where the situation is catastrophic), many engineering programmes and courses are reduced or suppressed.
One has also to mention the development of a mass education, which corresponds to the need, in many countries for educating and training many more qualified people. In France, for instance, it is politically affirmed that 90% of a generation of young people should have access to University and this is considered as a key element for democraty and society development. The traditional institution are forced to increase size of classes; lectures are given by professors to gigantic students classes. Faculty staffs are unable to invest time and resources for defining new approaches, inventing new ways of teaching, integrating new elements (as for example, the information revolution).
A new challenge for engineering education
Taking into account these negative factors and these important constraints, one should not be estonished that engineering faculties and schools are not generally ready to have another look at education and training (different from what was and is the 19th Century positivist tradition) and to develop new perspectives.
Among the various important issues we should take into account, when looking at engineering education for the future, one important question lies in the new link we have to consider between information, knowledge and education. How can we integrate the new information revolution in our way of providing education and training? How can we combine access to information resources (through worldwide electronic means and networks) and knowledge consolidation? This point will be developed below.
We have to consider the need for educating not only individuals, but also specialized, mixed and multidisciplinary professional teams, in which engineers are able to communicate and work with technicians, economists, jurists, information specialists, business people, sociologists, etc. The new complex situations in our modern societies need appropriate solutions invented by such multidisciplinary teams.
It seems to be very important also to prepare engineers to better use methodological skills related to intellectual work efficiency. Thus, they should be much more aware of methods and technics linked with problem solving, creativity, information heuristics, system analysis, team work, project management, etc., which cannot be reduced to disciplinary subjects and which are essential for inventing new engineering approaches.
5 - ANOTHER LOOK AT INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE
The information revolution is one of the most important factor of change for engineering education. How to redefine engineering education in the context of post-industrial societies influenced by of a world-wide expansion ot their economy, by also an incontestable elevation of the knowledge and competency levels and by a more and more intricate situation of productive forces? Can we invent and establish new ways of education nad training that can better take into account the generalized access to specialized information and the world-wide networking?
The emergence of the information technology and society
The present situation can be caracterized by the emergence of information and communication in all fields of individual and professional life. The specialized information systems, tools and networks become more and more important and powerful. American politicians as well as Europeans ones are now strongly discussing the need of new information infrastructures, ready to put milliards of dollars or ECUs in the construction of such information superhighways (200 French Francs Milliards, in 20 years, as recommended by the recent Thery Report in France for the creation of a national information and telecommunication network using optical fibres). Data bases, data banks, experts systems, CAE, CAM, CIM, transborder data flows, EDI, CD-ROM, CD-I, Internet, groupware, etc.: engineers, entreprises, educators are really facing a new situation in which information resources (whatever the way of accessing them) are becoming key resources for the development of industry and society activities.
But, it is also important to mention the fact that the professional or specialized information is not the unique one to be taken into account. Within companies, one recognizes how it is important to stimulate the communication skills of the various employees: this ground information is essential for improving quality and productivity. It is also often said that engineers and staff people should better communicate with people from different cultures and languages and should better dialogue with the rest of the society, with politicians, with social specialists as well as with mass medias.
Transfer of what: information and/or knowledge?
In some respects, enginering education should not be limited to the unique transfer, around the age of 20, of a box of fixed knowledges which can be used during the entire career. The information revolution accelerates the changes in the society and open our minds to world-wide situations, to experiences and knowledges which we were unable to imagine some minutes before looking at our e-mail messages. Everyone can easily access to pieces of information and/or knowledge which are produced in another part of the world. Everyone can easily access to structured as well as unstructured information, public as well as confidential information. Everyone can easily access but also produce and disseminate information.
Under these conditions, the important question we have to answer is the following: does-it now exist a difference between fixed and structured education on the one hand and world-wide and circulating information on the other hand, in terms of preparing our minds (especially engineers' minds) to face new complex and moving situations and to develop professional activities?
Access to information: what's about class-rooms?
Schematically, one could assert that there is no more a necessity to build and use an engineering school or faculty for educating and training an engineer. There is no more necessary to geographically concentrate students at a given place and in a given time for teaching them the bases of mechanical engineering or water resources management. There is no more necessary to build class rooms for providing access to information and knowledge.
If an engineering faculty still continue to mean something, for which objectives, functions and services does it? Are engineering professors useful, if they still continue to repeat within the class-room what is more easily available through information channels?
The role of engineering faculties and schools should certainly change. For instance, they should develop easy access conditions, for everybody, to information and knowledge resources. They should stimulate the curiosity of young people. They should help the students to establish links between scattered and contradictory datas and knowledges (methodological input). They should contribute to the production, transfer and dissemination of new specialized informations and knowledges, as well as they should develop new methods of education based on these concepts.
Training engineers to manage their information resources
One important objective should also be the training of future engineers in the field of information and knowledge management. They certainly should better benefit, today, from the use of data bases as well as library or information centres. They should be rapidly exposed to modern information tools such as CD-ROM, CD-I, Internet, multimedia, etc., and be able to move within the new cyberspace. More than 50% of the classical lectures at technical universities (especially during the first years) should be suppressed and replaced by consultation of appropriate information and knowledge systems. Satellites, electronic networking, distance learning have to be considered now by universities as major factor for the development of enginering education and investments should be done in this direction, at local, national or regional levels.
If electronic information is becoming an incontestable tool and an efficient resource, one should not forget also other dimensions of the educational information system. Contacts with industry, exchanges with foreign partners, projects with other institutions (especially for multidisciplinary activities), experiences contributing to the cultural and personal development are, of course, of great value and should provide opportunities to engineering students to enrich their personal information and knowledge data base and to better understand the real world.
What's about curriculum development and pedagogy ?
An engineering curriculum should consist, in the future, in a structured but flexible organization with combine a personal access to numerous sources of pertinent information and knowledge and a strong, rigourous tutoring whose aim is to help students to transform variable information into durable knowledge. This new curriculum should encourage students to develop professional experiences such as project works, contacts with industry, international exchanges, etc.
The engineering faculty should of course provide access to the pertinent information sources and facilitate the educational communication among the students and staff community (on large geographical areas): electronic tutoring should, for instance, be strongly emphasized. The faculty should also set-up the procedures for the consolidation of the students knowledges (laboratory work, project work, pedagogical exchanges,...) and for the assessment of the learning results.
6 - NEW FRONTIERS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
The perspective of the information revolution implicates new views about the development of engineering education and about the future institutions able to able such education and training.
New institutions, new approaches of networking
During the last years, especially in Europe, one attended an important move towards some forms of institutional concentration and/or networking. Consortiums were strongly encouraged, for instance, by the European Union in order to stimulate the creation of new educational products and new information systems. Networks of technical universities and enginering schools were multiplied. It is also interesting to see, in France for instance, how the traditional individualist engineering schools are now trying to set-up new collective webs in order to develop international, research or business activities.
In other words, it appears more and more important to set-up new institutions (or new ways of ccoperating between institutions) in order to be able to face the development of the future higher education and specialized information market. It is necessary, for a country like France, to define the few future major poles that will be able to invest in new and heavy equipments for the dissemination of information and knowledge, especially in the field of scientific, technical and engineering education. Joint ventures between technical universities and national and multinational advanced companies will certainly be multiplied in the near future.
One could easily imagine a scenario based on the development of few big centres (at national, regional or international levels) devoted to the active production and world-wide dissemination of structured information and knowledge. These supplying centres will be developed through joint ventures between well-known universities and major companies (Microsoft, IBM, Siemens, Nokia, etc...). A world-wide web of smaller institutions will be devoted to the consolidation of students knowledges at local levels and to an active and interactive networking (exchange of information, knowledge and know-how), but without heavy investments.
Information access and continuing or life-long education
Another consequence of the information revolution should be the transformation of the present ways of providing continuing education. In the future, it will be very easy to give access to specialized information and structured knowledge to every professional, to every engineer, either within his or her entreprise, or even directly at home. This will be an important market that universities should not forget, especially if one takes into account the fact that the life-long education and training is becoming a necessity.
But let us dream a bit. If engineering students are better prepared to use information resources and to develop and manage their own personal information and knowledge system, if university and industry are cooperating for creating new intelligent self-learning stations that students can use during their studies, why not imagine that after getting their degree, the young engineers continue to improve and develop their own personal data base. A permanent actualization of such personal information and knowledge systems should be a very important aim and should contribute to a new developement of continuing and long-life education.
Creating new information-education products and services
The information revolution will also stimulate teaching staffs at university, as well as researchers, to create new educational products and services. The recent multiplication of international conferences on computer aided engineering education gives testimonies of such a perspective. It will be important to encourage engineering professors to develop such educational modules which mix access to information and consolidation of knowledge (the European Union, for instance, supports such projects). These modules should be easily transferable, exchangable and should be accessable through various channels (CD-ROM, Internet, satellites,...).
Consequently, the payment of the teaching staff should give priority to such educational investment and take much more into account the work done for the creation of transferable information and knowledge modules. Education is becoming a cultural and economical investment; learning assistance has to be considered as an industrializable service on which quality assessment procedures can be applied.
Quality and management in engineering education
Many recent international conferences pointed out the importance of quality control in education and the role of a new management perspective in engineering education. The information revolution, but also the present constraints as well as the new aims, oblige engineering faculties and schools to establish quality and management procedures which can not be reduced to the traditional rules and practices of the university functioning (faculty, department, etc.). In some countries, one tries to take into account the ISO 9,000 standard and to use it in engineering education. In other countries, new assessment or evaluation procedures are set-up at national level, in order to better adapt engineering education to society needs.
A new managerial approach seems to be proposed here or there which tries to better balance the various components of an educational programme under new economical conditions. One tries, for instance, to find a balanced proportion between traditional lectures, project and laboratory work, practical experience in industry, international exchanges, and, of course, information access facilities. At the institution level, one tries also to better mix educational and research activities, first or initial education, post-graduate education and continuing education, information dissemination and knowledge development.
The new information and knowledge infrastructure calls a new management awareness and needs new managerial skills and procedures, based on a more systemic approach. The management team of such new institution should find convergences or compromises between different logics:
- the strategical, economical and decision-making process;
- the educational perspective (disciplines, departments, teaching staff,...);
- the market orientation (education, research and information markets);
- the society needs, the educational aims, the standards (long term strategy).
It certainly could be very interesting to develop some international research work on this subject and to propose new schemes for the management of new education and information institutions.
7 - CONCLUSION
Who would have thought, in 1747, when one founded the Ecole Royale des Ponts et Chaussées in France for the education and training of the first civil engineers, that two and a half centuries latter, people would communicate through satellites or optical fibers, would fly over oceans and continents, would cross the Channel using their own car or a fast train (TGV)? Would Diderot, the editor of the French Encyclopedia, have imagined just before the French Revolution that the numerous volumes of his work would be contained on a small CD-ROM and have become a testimony of the information revolution?
The world obviously has changed and is rapidly changing. But do our universities, our engineering schools take into account these transformations? Do they adapt their approaches of education to the new information society?
We, engineering educators, are forced to imagine, create and develop new ways for the education and training of future engineers. We have to integrate approaches allowing autonomous self-learning practices and facilitating the generalized and open access to information and knowledge. We have to invent and set-up the methodological and pedagogical components of a new educational perspective, which better links information and knowledge, first education and life-long education, personal and professional developments and a global comprehension of the society transformations. We, at last, have to define the appropriate conditions of a new management of the education and information resources valid at various scales, from local to national or even world-wide levels.
These are the most important challenges that engineering education is facing now and that need large international confrontations and discussions. The 1995' World Conference on Engineering Education, focusing on "Restructuring Engineering Education for Meeting World Needs", will provide such an opportunity to debate and to address important issues for engineering education in the future.
Engineering education ... how can we look at it now without closing our eyes to society' changes and needs?