Arranz Piera, Pol

Giné Garriga, Ricard

Lazzarini, Boris

Pérez Foguet, Agustí

UPCommons

Global engineers: key professionals for sustainable human development

UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC

During this year 2015, the eight Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2000 will give way to a new formulation of international action, based on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1]. The SDGs seek to complete the unfinished business of the MDGs and respond to new challenges. They are action oriented, global in nature and universally applicable; and constitute a holistic, indivisible set of global priorities for sustainable development. These goals will integrate economic, social and envi-ronmental aspects and recognize their interlinkages in achieving sustainable development in all its dimensions.Technical and technological innovative solutions are expected to play a key role in addressing the vast majority of the SDGs. Engineering does and can play a major role in combating global poverty. The “global” engineer needs to take a wider perspective and unders-tand the potential for improving lives of the poor worldwide, through the appro-priate design and use of technology [2].SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT NEEDS PROFESSIONALSGlobal Engineers: key professionals for Sustainable Human DevelopmentApril 2015POLICY BRIEFKEY FINDINGSEngineers with a broader capacity are needed to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development GoalsCurrent debates at EU and international level have not yet explored in detail the role that Higher Education should play within Global Citizenship EducationThe GDEE project has developed a specic curriculum and tools to widen the training of Engineers in Europe, and to include global development aspects into their professional competencesSuch considerations must therefore be an integral part of the two essential stages in the engineering profession, namely:a) Training – Sustainable human development aspects need to be increasingly included within higher education (engineering) curricu-lab) Practising – The standards that regulate engineers’ professional competences shall specifically recognise practising in a context of development.UNESCO and other international stakeholders advocate for the recognition of the Global Citizenship Education (GCE) vision [3]: “It is a concern with the relevance of knowledge, skills and values for the participation of citizens in, and their contribution to, dimen-sions of societal development which are linked at local and global levels. Global learning can make a positive contribution to a globalised world by helping students learn about the challenges our world faces and think critically about how to deal with issues such as poverty, inequality and sustainability.”Higher Education can and must be also part of the GCE vision; however, current debates at EU and international level have not yet explored in detail the role that Higher Education should play within GCE. A latest example can be found in the programme of the forthcoming European Development Days in June 2015, where Higher Education has conspicuously fallen out of the agenda.CURRICULAR CHALLENGES IN   PREPARING GLOBAL ENGINEERSHigher education needs to prepare engineers with conceptual and practical instruments to recognise and deal with the challenges posed by an increasingly complex and inter-depend-ent world. The European Union recognizes the important role higher education plays for development. Official DEVCO regional support focuses on the development and modernisa-tion of higher education in those countries that participate in the external cooperation programmes of the EU [4]. The two main components of DEVCO’s support are  i) the capacity building of higher education institu-tions and  ii) mobility of students, academics and staff. However, such important support is not formally encompassing the role of the engineers being trained within the EU. Higher education in Europe is largely defined and administered at state level, and the only area where a coordinated EU action can be found is student mobility (ERASMUS + programme).Since 2013, the GDEE project (http://gdee.eu), an initiative led by top EU universities and NGOs delivering training services and infrastructure projects, has explored the challenges in widening the traditional training of engineers, and developed tools and materials accord-ingly. The key conclusions of the GDEE analy-sis are:Engineering practice needs to incorpo-rate global skills and competences, further than greener ones [5], such as being able to work in a range of complex social and cultural environments, being culturally sensitive and being able to recog-nize broader social needs and agendas [5].Universities, teachers and quality assur-ance agencies do not have a common understanding and proper guidelines to implement, evaluate or provide accreditation of these global compe-tences into the engineering degrees. International experiences have shown that the first step should be the promotion of global competences explicitly included in the curricula, and the second step should be to include evidence in the monitoring and evaluation of the degrees. Global civil society organizations should be involved in the quality assurance (QA) of global competences, in line with previous analyses of QA within the European Higher Education Area [6].Global Learning is an area of increasing interest in higher education, helps to raise the profile and prestige of the university. Engineering students are aware of the importance of including global compe-tencies in their curriculum, and have a strong motivation for it.Global learning in engineering education is directly related to the Research for Development practice, especially in MSc and PhD programs. Work on research and education for development is published in relevant scientific journals, and in sec-tor-related conferences. However, the research for development impact is hindered by the inertia of the mainstream international quality assessment of Science. Novel subjects as Development Studies in top scientific databases could help engi-neering sciences researchers, as well as social scientists, to highlight their current contributions in these fields.A.B.C.D.E.The post-2015 agenda and SDG momentum are pushing the mapping of global engineer skills and competences to the top of the agenda. It is the time to advocate for a Global Dimension approach in Engineering degrees, schools, professional associations and accreditation bodies.   Experience in the UK: The British Engineering Council is the UK regulatory body for the engineering profession; it sets and maintains the standards (UK SPEC) for the engineering profession and sets the overall requirements for accreditation. The Engineering Council licenses over 20 professional engineering institutions (such as the Inst. of Civil Engineers, Inst. of Mechanical Engineers, Inst. of Engineering and Technology, etc.)  to undertake accredi-tation within these requirements, interpreting them as appropriate for their own sector of the profession and maintains the database of accredited degree programmes. Also, the Engineering Council sets and maintains the internationally recognised standards of professional competence and ethics that govern the award and retention of these titles.GLOBAL DIMENSION IN PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING COMPETENCESIn 2008, 'The Global Engineer' report [7] laid out a conceptual methodology to incorporate the competences of a 'Global Engineer'  into the professional accreditation standards (in the UK ), comprising 5 sequential stages. Based on recent policy discussion in Spain, Italy and the UK, the GDEE initiative proposes an evolution of this concept to factor in the need for a cyclical approach:• a general, longer cycle should map the global engineer skills and competences every ‘n’ years (about 15 years, e.g. the Global Development cycle, MDG-SDG), for a continuous adaptation to the practice context; and• a specific, shorter cycle (every 4-6 years) should monitor and re-evaluate the effective implementation of global skills within curricula and lectures, primarily through direct contact with post-graduates and professional engineers.1Engineering practice context changing every “n” yearsRe-evaluate eective implementation of skills & competences, every 4-6 years        This publication is part of the Project “GLOBAL DIMENSION IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION “GDEE” - Cross-cutting development education into technology studies”, funded by EuropeAid (Contract DCI-NSAED/2012/280-929)The GDEE ProjectAuthors: Pol Arranz-Piera, Ricard Giné, Boris Lazzarini and Agustí Pérez-FoguetEngineering Sciences & Global Development, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, SpainGDEE is now a growing network, with the following partners (April 2015):http://gdee.eu/ http://www.eadi.org/Supported by:REFERENCES[1]  United Nations General Assembly, 2014. Report of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, Resolution A/68/970. August 2014, New York.  http://undocs.org/A/68/970[2]  GDEE (eds), 2014. The Global Engineer in Sustainable Human Development, In: Global Dimension in Engineering Education. Barcelona. Available at  http://gdee.eu/index.php/resources.html[3]  UNESCO, 2014. Global Citizenship Education. Preparing learners for the challenges of the 21st century.[4]  European Commission, 2015. DEVCO support to Higher Education. Draft note. March 2015, Brussels.     http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/higher-education/document/devco-support-higher-education[5]  OECD (2013), “Think green” and “A global world”, in Tends Shanping Education 2013, OECD Publishing. DOI: 10.1787/trends_edu-2013-en [6]  EHEA (2012), Making the Most of Our Potential: Consolidating the European Higher Education Area, European Higher Education Area, Bucharest communiqué 2012. http://www.ehea.info/Uploads/%281%29/Bucharest%20Communique%202012%281%29.pdf[7]  Bourn, D. Neal, I., 2008. The Global Engineer. Incorporating global skills within UK higher education of engineers, Engineers Against Poverty. March 2008.

Global engineers: key professionals for sustainable human development

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