The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield
is embarked on a curriculum change project with roll out starting with level 1 in
September 2017. The drivers behind the change included the need to modernise the
curriculum both in terms of content, structure and delivery. The main objective was
to develop a modern Sheffield Chemical Engineer. The study is primarily about
investigating the efficacy of the change efforts that have been introduced, to track
progress and to determine whether we are meeting our stated objectives. The
objectives are in relation to student success, student experience, curriculum coherence
and student and staff well-being. Specifically, the new curriculum will be coherent,
embedded in design and practice with an emphasis on critical thinking, problem
solving, professionalism, ethics and sustainability. It will offer flexible learning
environments and pathways to facilitate deep engagement. It will promote and
facilitate industry involvement by focusing on both process and product engineering
to develop industry ready practical graduates with hands on experience. It will produce
graduates who are integrators, change agents and self-directed learners to lead
multidisciplinary teams, and be at the forefront of innovation. It will provide exposure
to niche research areas built on a strong core in engineering fundamentals. Lastly, it
will produce graduates capable of Engineering from molecules by applying systems
level thinking at many length scales. We have identified a third year module process
design as a significant check point to determine whether some of our curriculum
objectives are being met (Patwardhan et al, 2017)
