What responsibilities do engineers have to fellow employees, the community, and the environment? Is there a difference between the environment locally and globally? Should environmental concerns outweigh others?

These are some of the questions posed in our Engineering Ethics Toolkit case study Water wars: managing competing water rights.

This case involves a situation where environmental damage may be occurring despite the mechanism causing this damage being permissible by law. It examines the ethical issues of sustainability, respect for the environment, risk, societal impact, and future generations, and explores professional situations such as law, policy, communication, and integrity.

Now, as well as the activities within the original case study, we have provided an expansion on one of the activities in the form of a Case enhancement, based on the activity of role-playing a meeting, with students playing different characters representing different perspectives.

We’ve provided this, and other case studies and case enhancements for you to use and adapt in your teaching. If you’re new to ethics, we have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you, and an interactive Ethics Explorer to get you started.

If you would like to give feedback on this or any other Engineering Ethics resource, or submit your own content, you can do so here. We also have a newly created community of practice that you can join, where we hope that educators will support each other, and share their success stories of teaching engineering ethics. You can join our Ethics Ambassadors community here.

Who should make decisions about projects that affect nature on a global scale? What laws or regulations exist that govern internet constellations? What aspects of the natural world might be affected by this technology in both the short- and long-term?

These are some of the questions posed in our Engineering Ethics Toolkit case study Developing an internet constellation.

This case is about an experienced engineer leading a team at a tech start-up, and addresses two of AHEP 4’s themes: The Engineer and Society (acknowledging that engineering activity can have a significant societal impact) and Engineering Practice (the practical application of engineering concepts, tools and professional skills).

Now, as well as the activities within the original case study, we have provided an expansion on one of the activities in the form of a Case enhancement, Anatomy of an internet satellite.

We’ve provided this, and other case studies and case enhancements for you to use and adapt in your teaching. If you’re new to ethics, we have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you, and an interactive Ethics Explorer to get you started.

If you would like to give feedback on this or any other Engineering Ethics resource, or submit your own content, you can do so here. We also have a newly created community of practice that you can join, where we hope that educators will support each other, and share their success stories of teaching engineering ethics. You can join our Ethics Ambassadors community here.

The results of the 2022 EPC Engineering Enrolments Survey are now available. Deep dive the results through our members-only Data explorer, view the slide-deck, or read the summary blog.

To start, many thanks to members who completed this year’s EPC engineering enrolments survey. The survey gives us all an early temperature check of the health of HE undergraduate and postgraduate engineering enrolments and provides early signals to changing patterns of enrolments. Our survey is the only place you can gain this insight, long before official sector enrolment data for 2022/23 is available.

Following the introduction of EPC Online earlier this year, we are delighted to present an enhanced survey report in 2022. Results are now showcased in our pioneering Data explorer service which provides you, our members, the opportunity to access and explore the findings through dynamic and flexible data visualisations. Using our new service, you can drill down and dissect results by specific cohorts, filter to your own discipline(s) of interest and view charts, tables and data personalised to your needs.

Please remember that this is a survey – not a data collection – but with more than half of EPC member providers submitting a response we celebrate better coverage (c35K students) of more discrete disciplines (210) than ever before. Net of the increase in responses, this leads us to a relative increase in enrolments suggesting a healthy Engineering intake in 2022.

In another first for our survey, IT systems sciences & computer software engineering leads the pack in Engineering enrolments in 2022, following a pattern of year-on-year growth in our survey. Mechanical engineering is a close runner up this year.

Last year, early signals of a contracting overseas market in First degree engineering raised concerns over Engineering’s ability to retain its relative strength in overseas recruitment. We were seeing sector-wide recruitment of overseas students increasing, possibly in subjects more easily accessible remotely in the pandemic recovery period than lab and kit dependent Engineering courses. While we can’t corroborate this trend in the HESA enrolments data for 2021 for a few months yet, our 2022 survey shows an encouraging, stronger, First degree overseas Engineering market this year.

In another overseas twist, a massive 82% of postgraduates in the 2022 sample were from overseas, continuing an upward trend since at least the 2019 survey and witnessing a sharp increase from 71% in 2021. Our surveys consistently show that Russell Group universities dominate the overseas postgraduate cohort so it is of note that our sample this year is weighted 2:1 to non-Russell group providers (compared to only a marginal non-Russell group majority typically). This may suggest we will see an even more pronounced swing when the full data collection becomes available in 2024.

Meanwhile, our members report declines in traditional Engineering disciplines of Civil; Mechanical; and Chemical, process and energy engineering this year, as well as Bioengineering. Growth is reported overall in Mineral, metallurgy & materials; Production and manufacturing; and IT systems sciences & computer software engineering. Of course, we are reminded that that market forces aren’t the only factor at play when it comes to changes in the engineering enrolments profile year on year.

More detail is available in the Recruitment + Admissions Forum launch presentation slide deck (and a recording will be available via the event page in due course). If you wish to explore the data for yourself, discover insights most relevant to your setting, and dive deeper into this this year’s findings, please do visit our to our members-only Data explorer. Do tell us what you think using the comment, discussion and takeaway channels available to you.

You may have noticed our beta Data explorer on EPC’s new website.

Student enrolments on the site is now fully formed and we were excited to recently bring members the first of a series of Data dive workshops to help them explore the amazing possibilities this brings. You won’t want to watch a whole hour of an interactive workshop, so we have recorded the demonstration to share with members who were unable to make the Data dive event but want to learn more about this member only service. You can review the recording via the past event page EPC Data dive workshop: student enrolments.

If you have any problems logging in or accessing the page, please contact us.

We pledge to bring you regular updates and a monthly hands-on online workshop to guide you through our new exclusive-to-members service. Check our website regularly to see what’s up next.

Please check back later for content.

The 2020 Professors and Heads of Electrical Engineering Conference (PHEE), in conjunction with PHOMME (Professors and Heads of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) and the EPC (Engineering Professors’ Council) will be held at the IET, Savoy Place, London on 15th January, 2020.

To download the programme for the day, please follow the link here.

 

The 2019 Professors and Heads of Electrical Engineering Conference (PHEE), in conjunction with PHOMME (Professors and Heads of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) and the EPC (Engineering Professors’ Council) was held at the IMechE, Birdcage Walk, London on 16th January, 2019. The presentations that were made available by the speakers for publication may be downloaded via the link below.

Theme: Opportunities for UK Engineering Higher Education

Conference Programme and Presentations

The PHEE Annual Conference 2018“New Perspectives on UK Higher Education and Research” – in conjunction with PHOMME and Co-sponsored by EPC – will be held on Wednesday 17th January 2018 at the IET, Savoy Place, London.
Programme highlights include:

The full Conference Programme is available here.
You can download the Conference Booking Form here.

The PHEE-PHOMME Annual Conference 2017 will take place on Wednesday 11th January 2017 at the IMechE, Birdcage Walk, London

“The Future of Teaching and Research in HE”

Keynote speakers:
The Rt. Hon. Paul Blomfield, MP – Shadow Minister (Exiting the European Union), with interests in Universities and Education
Prof. Julia King DBE FREng, The Baroness Brown of Cambridge
Topics include:

As always, there will be ample time for discussion during each session as well as during the hot lunch provided to all attendees.
Book here now
Large discount available for 2 or more delegates from the same University.

Please follow the links for:

For enquiries or further information, please contact Izzet Kale, PHEE Honorary Secretary at email: phee@epc.ac.uk

The 2016 Professors and Heads of Electrical Engineering Conference (PHEE), in conjunction with PHOMME (Professors and Heads of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) was held at the IET, Savoy Place, London on 13th January, 2016. The presentations that were made available by the speakers for publication may be downloaded via the links below.

Theme: The Future of Engineering and Technology in Higher Education

Conference Programme

Session 1   Developments in Engineering Education
Chair Prof John Senior, Hertfordshire

Keynote Address: Issues and Developments in HE – Prof Madelaine Atkins, CEO, HEFCE

Teaching Excellence Framework – Prof Sean Ryan, Higher Education Academy (HEA)

New Model in Technology and Engineering– Prof Peter Goodhew, (NMITE), Hereford

Engineering University Reflections on running a branch campus – Prof Ian Pashby, University of Hull

IET Academic Partners – Jake Godfrey, IET Academic Account Manager

Session 2   Major Engineering Opportunities
Chair Prof Clive Neal Sturgess, Birmingham

Keynote Address: Is the employability of engineering graduates good enough? – Prof Sir William Wakeham, Vice President, Royal Academy of Engineering

HS2 and the Digital Revolution in our Railway Systems – Prof Clive Roberts, University of Birmingham

Tidal Energy: Prospects for the Future – Prof Chris Binnie, previously Chairman of the Thames Tideway Strategy Steering Group

Spectrum Crunch – An impetus for LiFi – Dr Wasiu Popoola, University of Edinburgh

Session 3   Demand for Graduate Engineers
Chair Prof John Robinson, York

Meeting the demand for graduate Engineers in the Engineering/Manufacturing Sectors – Verity O’Keefe, Employment and Skills Policy, Engineering Employers Federation

UK Electronics Skills Foundation: Tackling the graduate skills shortage in the Electronics Sector – Stewart Edmonson, CEO, UK Electronics Skills Foundation

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