Engineering Education Research Network Archives - Engineering Professors Council

Media release

15th June 2023

The Engineering Professors’ Council today announced the launch of innovative new content for their Engineering Ethics Toolkit, an online resource that helps educators to build ethics directly into their engineering teaching. 

Created by the Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) with support from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Ethics Toolkit addresses the issue that relatively few university engineering courses explicitly embed ethics teaching throughout the curriculum.  

The ability to tell right from wrong – and better from worse – is as vital to an engineer as maths or design skills, yet many UK higher education institutions fall short in effectively developing these abilities in future engineering professionals. The Engineering Ethics Toolkit solves this problem with a suite of interactive resources, guidance and teaching materials that aim to engage educators, and enable them to introduce ethics into the education and training of every engineer, allowing the UK to position itself as a leader in promoting engineering as a force to improve the world for people and the planet. 

As well as offering advice to educators who want to teach ethics but are not sure where to begin, the Toolkit features ready-to-use classroom resources that are rooted in educational best practice and align with the Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes (AHEP) criteria, which are the conditions for courses to receive professional accreditation.  

These case studies and other teaching materials highlight current and emerging real-world issues and can be used and adapted by anyone. The latest additions to the Engineering Ethics Toolkit include the interactive Ethics Explorer, which helps educators understand, plan for and implement ethics learning, and 30 new academic guidance articles, case studies and comprehensive classroom activities created and developed by academic and industry professionals. 

Dr Rhys Morgan, Director of Education and Diversity at the Royal Academy of Engineering, comments: “There has never been a more crucial time to ensure that the next generation of engineers have the skills and training to critically address ethical questions around issues such as artificial intelligence and sustainability. It is vital for the future of our profession, as well as the future of our society and planet, that every engineer develops the ability to make responsible and informed decisions regarding the ethics of their work.” 

Raffaella Ocone OBE FREng FRSE, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, remarks: “As engineers and as educators we want to improve the world. When we teach ethics within our engineering degrees, we teach the ability to determine what is wrong and what is right, what is a mistake and what is an improvement. The Engineering Ethics Toolkit makes it easy to include ethics in our teaching. It is a treasure trove for educators.” 

The Engineering Ethics Toolkit is a free to use suite of resources, available at epc.ac.uk/resources/toolkit/ethics-toolkit  

To hear about forthcoming Engineering Ethics Toolkit webinars and workshops, join the EPC’s Ethics Ambassadors community by emailing press@epc.ac.uk  

Ends

Notes to editors

The Engineering Professors’ Council (EPC) is the UK’s representative body for engineering academics in higher education.
The Royal Academy of Engineering is committed to supporting ethical practice in the engineering profession. Ethics is part of other behaviours such as inclusivity and sustainability, which ensure that both individuals and organisations are globally responsible. These behaviours help secure an inclusive economy and sustainable society for all. For more information on the Academy’s work in this area see https://raeng.org.uk/ethics
A press pack, including images, can be downloaded from http://epc.ac.uk/uploads/2023/06/Engineering-Ethics-Toolkit-Media-Pack-June-2023.zip

Contact

Contact: Johnny Rich
Email: press@epc.ac.uk
Phone: 0781 111 4292
Website: epc.ac.uk/resources/toolkit/ethics-toolkit
Twitter: @EngProfCouncil
#EngineeringEthicsToolkit
#EngineeringEthics

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The Association for Learning Technology launched a working party on Innovative and Inclusive assessments earlier in March and has onboard passionate staff from 29 institutions.

The work party’s main goal is to promote changes to assessment design within a member’s own institutions to make assessment more Just, Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive (JEDI).

Assessment change in the current climate cannot be mentioned without mentioning the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

So, if you think you have something to share on JEDI assessment design changes you have led or you have used AI tools as copilots in JEDI assessment design, then, the ALT south team and the working party on Innovative and Inclusive Assessments would like to hear from you on 4th May 2023, kindly complete the form and the ALT south team will schedule your talk for their May the 4th event.

The sessions on 4th May (12, 1 and 2pm) will be available for anyone to join and the links will be sent out in due course, please save the date in your calendars if you are interested in attending.

This is not an EPC-run event. Please click the ‘Register’ button below to book onto the event.

Come along and hear about three Erasmus + Engineering Education Projects currently ongoing by CREATE researchers in TU Dublin. Everyone welcome!

To register please complete the registration form to receive a Teams link: Registration Form

The Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) has recently launched the 2022 SRHE Research and Scoping Awards.

Applications are invited for new research funds with the society offering:

SRHE member research awards of £10,000 each for research on any aspect of higher education under their three overarching themes: Higher Education Policy; Higher Education and Society; and Higher Education Practice.
Scoping awards of £5,000 each (open to members and non-members) for the exploration of any new / emerging area of higher education research, leading to a development plan for further research.

The closing date for award applications is 1st September 2022.

Further information is available on their guidance page and more information about the benefits of SRHE membership is available here.

The UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network is happy to announce our first post-Covid in person event!

Join us for a weekend retreat in South Wales and refresh your mind and discover new ways of thinking and being as an engineer.

Many of us have a sense of unease and conflict about engineering education at present. We see the methods and knowledge that we teach our students go to serve corporation and industries that support an unjust economic system. Marginalised communities lack investment, the climate is worsening. The UN has stated that business-as-usual practices are insufficient. Yet the pace of change in the sector is slow, and the values of the sector seem to hold us back from making the radical changes needed.

This retreat will make a space for us to reimagine engineering education. We’ll explore constructing engineering identities that prioritise humanity and the environment. We’ll look at what parts of our curriculum practices could be harming our own and our students connection to the human race and the earth. We’ll share pedagogies can open students’ and our own eyes to systemic interconnections, and ways to bring an appreciation of this into our teaching practice.

The new edition of UK-SPEC is now available the Engineering Council’s website and can be accessed via:

https://www.engc.org.uk/engcdocuments/internet/website/UK-SPEC%20third%20edition%20(1).pdf

In keeping with the strong support for the previous edition, unnecessary changes have been avoided. The revisions are mostly for the purposes of clarification or updating in areas which have come to the fore since the previous review such as ethics, safety and risk management. Attention has also been paid to enhancing the distinctiveness between IEng and CEng.

Our attention is drawn to the enhanced focus on the ‘commitment’ element of the requirement for registration and the addition of one new standard of competence for all titles: ‘Exercise responsibilities in an ethical manner’ (Standard E5). A matrix comparing the requirements for EngTech, IEng and CEng is included as an Annex to UK-SPEC, to assist candidates, their advisors and assessors.

The Engineering Council’s Board of Trustees has approved a transition period of two years to 1 February 2016, by when all professional reviews should be undertaken against these editions of the Standards. The previous editions are accessible within ‘archived publications’ on our website. http://www.engc.org.uk

Use of the online versions is encouraged but the Engineering Council will be producing printed copies in due course.

ICT Technician Standard: the revised version has also been published and is available at:

https://www.engc.org.uk/EngCDocuments/Internet/Website/ICTTech%20Standard%20second%20edition%20(1).pdf

The Accreditation of HE Programmes revised edition is likely to be available in May.