Institutional practices versus student needs and its implications for the development of a holistic engineering education for sustainable development (EESD) framework

Sivapalan, Subarna; Subramaniam, Ganakumaran; Clifford, Michael

Abstract

Sustainable development (SD) competences feature prominently in the 2012 Malaysian Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) manual. The manual outlines 12 outcomes that undergraduate engineering students of Malaysian universities are expected to develop upon completion of their studies. These 12 outcomes, specifically those in relation to SD competences, are open for interpretation, in accordance to the vision, mission and educational philosophies of the respective universities and undergraduate engineering programmes. This paper highlights a Malaysian private engineering university’s endeavours to include SD competences within its undergraduate engineering programmes. The paper first focuses on the extent to which SD is featured within the institution’s programme educational outcomes and common modules. This was explored through qualitative means, namely manifest and latent content analysis. This is followed by a survey, to explore the present pedagogical practices within the undergraduate engineering programme to ascertain the extent to which it conforms to philosophies of education for sustainable development. Also highlighted are student stakeholders’ views on approaches best suited to teach sustainable development within the undergraduate engineering programme. The paper then discusses findings of a thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses on students’ needs that should be considered to help develop the desired sustainability learning experience in the university. A total of 12 categories were identified as a result of this thematic analysis, of which eight of these categories encompassed the common engineering modules i.e. (i) Practical versus Theoretical, (ii) Real sustainable development issues and situations, (iii) Sustainable development learning activities and assessment, (iv) The need for heightened exposure and awareness to sustainable development post-graduation, (v) Teaching and learning of sustainable development via knowledge of current technological trends, (vi) Sustainable development awareness through exposure within the engineering industry, (vii) Sustainable development content within current learning modules and (viii) Approach to teaching sustainable development. The remaining four categories identified were for the common non-engineering modules, namely (i) Communication and sustainable development, (ii) Approach to teaching sustainable development for non-engineering modules, (iii) Bringing real life sustainable development issues and situations into non-engineering modules and (iv) Relating engineering aspects with human and societal aspects. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the development of a holistic engineering education for sustainable development framework.

Citation

Sivapalan, S., Subramaniam, G., & Clifford, M. (2015). Institutional practices versus student needs and its implications for the development of a holistic engineering education for sustainable development (EESD) framework. In W. L. Filho (Ed.), Transformative Approaches to Sustainable Development at Universities : Working across Disciplines (413-433). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08837-2_28

• Acceptance Date: Jan 14, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Oct 4, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Aug 7, 2017
• Publisher: Springer
• Pages: 413-433
• Series Title: World Sustainability Series
• Book Title: Transformative Approaches to Sustainable Development at Universities : Working across Disciplines
• Chapter Number: 28
• ISBN: 978-3-319-08837-2_28
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08837-2_28
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1123263
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-08837-2_28