Foundations and Horizons: The Critical Role of International Coursework to Engage Students in Engineering for the 21 st Century

Abstract

As universities work to embed sustainability knowledge and skills within coursework, there is a growing paper-trail of attempts to design and implement curriculum that delves deeper than awareness and commitment to principles of sustainability. There is also an established awareness of the time-lag dilemma facing engineering education, where the time-frame for curriculum renewal is longer than the limited time-frame for transformed engineering practices that embrace – and deliver – sustainable development outcomes. In this paper the authors build on discourse to date, to present a rationale for targeting a subset of early-program students to ‘look to the horizon’ with regard to career context, contextualizing required ‘foundation’ curriculum competencies. Reflecting on a decade of inquiry into rapid curriculum renewal to embed sustainability and a current program intervention, the paper presents the results of an international collaboration between Griffith University (Queensland, Australia) and Chubu University (Nagoya, Japan) to deliver a first-year immersive experience in international engineering practice. The authors share their efforts and curriculum design strategy to transform engineering student perspectives regarding career pathways and the critical relevance of global context for living – and thriving – among the complexity of 21st Century challenges and opportunities. They share their organizational insights into enabling this approach in any higher education institution, including the potential for a ‘critical mass strategy’ to engage a subset of students within a larger cohort. The paper provides a useful point of reference for colleagues attempting to move beyond rhetoric and awareness, to develop engineering graduates who can deliver sustainable solutions towards the fulfilment of the UN SDGs. There are implications for recruitment and retention strategies in developing tangible careercontext and commitment to study from first year. The paper complements a separate paper that evaluates the student experiences of this curriculum design thruogh survey and focus group data (to be presented at 30th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, 2019).