"Bringing Life to our Engineering Curricula” is an exciting collaboration between a number of academic institutions in South Africa and the United Kingdom. This initiative specifically focuses on showcasing curriculum strategies that exist across South African Higher Education Institutions. The project will offer workshops and activities for all engineering institutions. In these sessions innovative integrated curriculum frameworks will be explored and developed.

This multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder project, focused on integration of the desired Graduate Attributes into SA Higher Education Engineering Programmes, has won a “Transforming Systems through Partnership” grant from the Royal Academy of Engineering. Partner institutions are the University of Pretoria, the University of Cape Town, the University of Johannesburg, the North-West University, the Vaal University of

Technology, and University College London, in collaboration with the South African Society for Engineering Education (SASEE). We invite anyone involved in the education of engineers to participate in this project. Click here to Register your interest.

Innovative Integrated Curriculum

What is an integrated curriculum?
For innovative integrated curricula, the primary concern is not delivery of content but rather experience gained through the curriculum. In a society where information is readily available and workspaces are dynamic, the skills that need to be cultivated, in addition to technical knowledge and critical thinking, include:

• developing a mindset of growth and continuous self-improvement;
• valuing and seeking out a diversity of backgrounds, skills and perspectives;
• flexibility and adaptability when solving problems rather than working towards a fixed goal.

It is increasingly important to pursue such efforts at curriculum reform as, globally, engineering education is moving towards integrated curricula. Research in engineering education increasingly promotes the integration of technical and non-technical competencies (often called soft-skills, or generic competencies). Two important reports capture this drive for change. The 2018 study “The global state of the art in engineering education” , commissioned by MIT, highlights key institutions which are implementing innovative strategies in their engineering curriculum.

In the European context, the 2019 study “Science & Technology Education for 21st Century Europe: Discussion Paper” argues that fundamental curricular change is the only way to benefit from pedagogical and technological innovation and better prepare graduates for the changing demands of work. University College London is a leader among a number of engineering institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) which have successfully implemented integrated curricula . Aalborg University in Denmark bases their curriculum around Mega Projects that engage students from different disciplines to work on projects that link to the UN SDGs . These examples provide inspiration and guidance for South African engineering institutions, as we seek to transition to integrated engineering curricula.