How to Teach Engineering and Industrial Design: a U.K. Experience

Abstract

Abstract Within the U.K. there has, over recent years, been a strong correlation between the lack of total design literacy of graduate engineers and the decline of the U.K. manufacturing industry. With the formation of the Engineering Council and the mandatory requirement of design studies in undergraduate courses, this trend is being reversed. Unfortunately the inclusion of industrial design is being ignored. The paper explores the possibilities of teaching engineering, whatever the discipline, through an open-ended design project approach at all years of a course. The use of CAD and professional facilities are recommended to be appropriate 'within a student-centred learning environment. However, staff attitudes to a total design activity—not engineering or industrial design only—have to change radically for the engineering graduate to leave higher education with an appropriate toolkit of knowledge and skills. The paper concludes that specific engineering/product design undergraduate courses are essential to meeting the immediate and future needs of U.K. industry.