ALTC project grant to help define national engineering graduate outcomes

A new USQ project, which will help define national engineering graduate outcomes, has received the tick of approval from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) after it was awarded a prestigious Priority Project grant.

The ALTC is the peak body for promoting teaching excellence in higher education and is dedicated to improving the student learning experience by supporting quality teaching and practice, and by funding deserving projects through award, fellowship and grant schemes.

USQ Engineering Education Professor David Dowling, and Dr Anna Carew from the University of Tasmania, will lead the project, which received the maximum grant of $220,000 from the ALTC. The project will enable University teachers, graduates and practitioners nationwide to work together to identify and develop technical graduate outcomes for their engineering discipline.

Professor Dowling said that this was important for both tertiary providers and the engineering industry.

'Having a defined set of technical graduate outcomes for a discipline is important because employers will have a better understanding of the capabilities of a graduate, and Universities can use them as a platform for curriculum renewal and a guide for accreditation purposes.

'The project will develop, pilot and implement a consultation process called Defining Your Discipline (DYD), a process that will allow stakeholders to workshop and clearly define the technical knowledge and skills that are essential for graduates for their discipline.

'We will be working closely with Engineers Australia to expand on their current generic requirement that graduates develop 'in-depth technical competence in at least one engineering discipline'.

'This requirement applies to undergraduate degrees in all of the engineering disciplines, but manifests differently in each discipline.'

Set to be completed in five stages over the next two years, Professor Dowling is confident that the project will deliver a valid process and nationally agreed graduate outcomes for at least two engineering disciplines.

'These will be developed in one small discipline such as biomedical engineering or environmental engineering and one larger discipline, for example civil engineering or mechanical engineering.

'The DYD process would then be able to be used by industry organisations in other fields to develop sets of graduate outcomes for their disciplines.'

This project is aligned with Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) initiatives to establish meaningful exit standard statements for Australian undergraduate degrees.

'To receive a Priority Project grant you must address certain ALTC priorities and this project met those requirements.'

The project will get underway in December, with the consultation process involving workshops in most Australian capital cities over the next two years.