New Approaches to Engineering HE: Accreditation & Innovation (and EPC AGM)

• Do the demands of accreditation get in the way of innovations in teaching?
• Are course designers always going to err on the side of caution so as not to risk losing their accreditation?
• Do professional bodies encourage this either deliberately or by default? They want to see new approaches that support more diverse students and more varied engineers, so what are they doing to encourage experimentation?
• Many countries do not report any such concerns — what’s going on there? Are they less innovative, less restrictive or just more willing to make it work?

This live webcast (which will be followed by the EPC AGM, see below) will consider the need to balance accreditation with innovation teaching practices – particularly within engineering. It will take place as part of ‘New Approaches to Engineering Higher Education’ , a joint initiative between the Engineering Professor’s Council and the Institution of Engineering & Technology.
The New Approaches initiative focuses on the following six facets — hallmarks of innovative practice in teaching and learning — each of which is, or perhaps should be, influenced by accreditation:

• Encouraging creativity
• Encouraging student diversity
• Increased project work
• Increased industry engagement
• Incorporating work experience
• Greater interdisciplinary

We will discuss how best prepare graduate engineers for a world where continued development and accreditation styles becomes the new normal. We will look at how much accreditation should play a part in this – if it should at all and how assessment can be recorded and graded.
Our panel of leading experts will explore what is possible and how to achieve. Confirmed speakers include:

• A speaker on behalf of the Engineering Council
• Dr James Flint, Deputy Associate Dean (Teaching), Wolfson School, Loughborough University
• Professor Beverley Gibbs, Chief Academic Officer, NMiTE
• Professor John Mitchell, Vice Dean Education, Engineering, and Co-Director, Centre for Engineering Education at University College London
• Prof Sean Wellington, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean at Middlesex University

Further names will be announced shortly. The discussion will be chaired by Dr Lisa Brodie, Head of the Department of Engineering Design & Mathematics at the University of the West of England.

This webcast will be useful for all academics and teachers in engineering higher education and related disciplines at all levels from early careers staff to those with managerial or strategic responsibilities at faculty level. It will also interest employers, students, professional bodies and anyone with an interest in enhancing the learning experiences of tomorrow’s engineers.

This event will be free and is open exclusively to academic staff working in member institutions of the Engineering Professors’ Council, to members of the IET and to selected guests. Registration is essential so that we can send you joining instructions.

The panel discussion will be followed by the Engineering Professors’ Council Annual General Meeting from 3pm to 4pm on the same Zoom webinar.

Attendance of the AGM will be restricted to members of the EPC. There will be an opportunity to join or leave the webcast at 3pm so attendance of one is not compulsory for attendance of the other.

For further details of the AGM, please click here.