Abstract
The complex dimensions of many issues faced by engineers require that they understand social and humanistic matters along with the technical, and communicate effectively and synergistically with persons having all sorts of backgrounds. This is especially true for matters of sustainability and energy supply. Engineering should therefore be built upon the foundation of a broad and liberal undergraduate education, with the professional degree being moved to the graduate level, as is the case for the other major professions. Another benefit of moving the degree level can be to delay the point of commitment to an engineering major from before college to the latter part of the undergraduate program, a move which can bring in new enrollees and increase diversity. The move of the professional engineering degree to the graduate level has already happened for a number of European countries as an outgrowth of the Bologna Process. There are incremental changes that can be made so that this transition can be undertaken by evolution as opposed to revolution.
Highlights
Among the major professions, engineering is the only one that traditionally has had the professional degree at the undergraduate level in most parts of the world
I define the professional degree as that degree which enables recipients to practice the profession generally
The idea that engineers should have a broad-based undergraduate education with the professional degree moved to the postgraduate level is not new
Summary
Among the major professions, engineering is the only one that traditionally has had the professional degree at the undergraduate level in most parts of the world. 2. Broader Undergraduate Education with Movement of the Engineering Professional Degree to the Graduate Level. The idea that engineers should have a broad-based undergraduate education with the professional degree moved to the postgraduate level is not new. The other constituency involved is, the students themselves, and it is they who would benefit most from a movement of the professional degree to the graduate level, in terms of having both more career-advancement opportunities and fuller lives. Recent surveys [16] of engineering students in 18 U.S public universities have consistently shown that most of them seek a broader undergraduate education These desires are probably not unique either to Berkeley or to chemical engineering among engineering disciplines
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