TRAINING VERSATILE ENGINEERS: A HISTORICAL AND PRESENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE PLACE OF THE HUMANITES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN THE CANADIAN ENGINEERING CONTEXT

Abstract

The importance of training well-rounded engineers has been discussed by engineering educators since the end of the Second World War. For decades now, the humanities and social sciences have been used to encourage engineering students to develop social competency, ethical awareness, and the ability to express themselves with ease, both orally and in writing. In Canada, the humanities and social sciences are featured prominently in the curriculum as part of complementary studies, which comprises both required and elective courses. How do students understand their experience with the humanities and social sciences during their degree? Do they see the usefulness of the skills and content learned in these fields for the job market? This study constitutes a first step in a larger project exploring these questions. Here we first present an overview of the historical and present debates on the place that humanities and social sciences have in the engineering curriculum. We then report on the feedback obtained from focus groups of graduating students asked about their experience and attitudes relative to “soft skills” graduate attributes and complementary studies. We conclude that the new Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board graduate attribute framework provides an opportunity to assess the role of the humanities and social sciences in the engineering curriculum and suggest possible ways to measurably enhance student experience and learning of non-technical or “soft” skills.