Engineering New Degrees

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Engineering New Degrees

• Richard Simons
• Julia Stegemann
• Jeremy Morley
• Stuart Robson
• Nick Tyler
• Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
  Department

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Background

• Structure of undergraduate degrees in UCL Civil
  Engineering had undergone only incremental
  changes over 30 years
• Applicants qualifications were just off the
  pace, with UCL often seen as an insurance if
  applicants failed to get a place at Imperial
  College or Oxbridge
• School heads told us that many good students
  prefer degrees with a broad curriculum and avoid
  the straight jacket suggested by a vocational
  degree
• Industry emphasized the need for free-thinking
  and adaptable graduates with well-developed
  problem-solving skills

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Local Context

• Student survey suggested that engineering degrees
  are not exciting and do not provide appropriate
  preparation for employment
• Students seen to lose motivation in 1st and 2nd
  years
• Too much teaching, with little time to think and
  apply knowledge
• Staff frustrated by a perceived imbalance between
  their workloads
• Staff frustrated by conflict in timetable between
  project work and lecture-based teaching
• Universities driven by a Research agenda for
  RAE and promotion

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Aims of the new degree programmes

• To attract the brightest students into an
  engineering education
• To produce graduates capable of
• clear thinking
• good communication skills
• managing large-scale engineering projects
• handling complex inter-disciplinary issues
• innovation
• taking on leadership roles
• working across the vocational boundaries
  traditionally associated with engineering degrees
• To offer degree programmes structured to allow
  all academic staff to make a significant
  contribution
• .. Grandma and Apple pie?!

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Key components of the new scheme .

• Range of undergraduate degrees simplified
• Admissions standards raised
• . and interview procedures modernised and
  streamlined
• Academic year re-shaped around major projects
• . introducing new roles for research-oriented
  academic staff
• Syllabus balanced between analytical methods and
  the context in which they can be applied
• Emphasis on the big picture at the start of
  degree programmes
• RAE Visiting Professor in Systems Engineering
  appointed
• Curriculum re-arranged into four blocks or
  Clusters
• Assessment through a single course unit
• Practising Professional Tutors who organize
  visits to sites and offices
• Constructionarium introduced at end of 2nd year
  sponsored by Laing ORourke and Waterman

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• Constructionarium in action

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An Uncommon Timetable Quarters Scenarios

• Teaching year (Autumn and Spring terms) is
  divided into four Quarters each lasting 5 weeks
• Quarters have four weeks of teaching and finish
  with a major one-week group project known as a
  Scenario
• Teaching in the four weeks is based around
  lectures, seminars, laboratory classes, and
  visits
• There is no formal teaching during Scenario
  weeks, but staff are available for consultation
  to guide student groups towards their goals
• 1st year and half 2nd year are common across
  degree programmes
• Input from industry to inform the final choice of
  degree

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From silos to frameworks .

• Syllabus for 1st and 2nd years of old degrees
• (taught in eight half-unit courses)
• Structures, Soils, Fluids, Materials, Design,
  Mathematics, Geology, Measurement, Society
• Syllabus for 1st and 2nd years of new degrees
  re-mapped to clusters
• (taught as single 4-unit course)
• Context, Change, Mechanisms, Tools
• Achieved by asking all staff to list core
  Learning Outcomes for their subject and to mark
  each as Context, Change, Mechanisms or Tools
• Learning Outcomes timetabled to mesh with the
  requirements of the multi-disciplinary Scenarios

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Clusters

• Context
• Offers an appreciation of the technical,
  political, and cultural contexts of engineering
  and interactions with the environment. Focus on
  clients, planning, regulation, legislation,
  economics and history.
• Tools
• Helps to develop a variety of skills, in
  mathematics, communications, land surveying,
  computing, GIS, CAD and drawing

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Clusters

• Mechanisms
• Develops an understanding of the theories
  underpinning engineering processes, where and why
  they are similar in different fields and where
  and why they are different.
• Change
• Builds on the understanding and skills gained
  in other parts of the syllabus to plan and
  realise an outcome. The focus is on design
  skills, a systems approach to problems,
  management of projects and development of
  creativity.

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Scenarios - the essential ingredient of our new
degree programmes

• One-week multi-disciplinary projects to apply
  taught material and identify need for future
  study
• Students work in groups different size,
  membership and roles for each project
• Assessment against different criteria for each
  project

• Each scenario run by two academics
• - one to link curriculum to the project,
• - the other to organise the project logistics

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Scenarios - the essential ingredient of our new
degree programmes

• Year 1
• Traffic and pollution in St Albans concepts
• Bridge design
• Shrimp farm in the Thames Estuary
• St Albans ii - detail

• Year 2
• Community Centre
• Offshore wind farm
• Airport expansion
• Drought in SE England

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Scenarios - the essential ingredient of our new
degree programmes

• Major task for staff to prepare a Scenario and
  make contact with relevant industrial advisors
• Major staff commitment during Scenario week
• Major task to arrange marking of group and
  individual work and subsequent feedback

• Offers an opportunity for staff whose research
  interests are not part of the traditional 1st or
  2nd year curriculum to play an active role in
  teaching

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Students briefing by staff in St Albans
Site survey in St Albans
The group-thinking stage ....
Review by Chief Engineer, Atkins
Waiting for questions
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Reduction in report-writing cut the slog

• As in the old degree programmes, students are
  required to carry out laboratory experiments to
  underpin lecture-based teaching
• Full reports are required for only a few of the
  experiments, specifically to develop and test
  technical writing skills
• Understanding of the mechanisms demonstrated in
  the experiments is assessed in scenarios and by
  examination

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Assessment structure 1st and 2nd years

• Assessment for each year is managed within a
  single 4-unit course
• This gives flexibility to introduce small
  components into the curriculum without a need to
  create larger, incoherent and disjointed courses
• Marks spreadsheet gives overall performance
  during the year and alerts staff to poor
  performance in Scenarios and other coursework

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Progression and award 1st and 2nd years

• Students have to achieve an overall pass mark AND
  have passed all four Clusters to proceed
• Referral tests are held in September for students
  whose overall mark lies in the referral band
  35-39
• Referral tests are held in September for students
  who fail one or more Clusters but have an overall
  mark of 40 or above
• Record of Achievement also maintained to monitor
  student performance in core engineering
  disciplines useful for writing references

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Results so far .

• Academic performance has improved more 1st
  class marks and fewer drop-outs
• At end of 1st year, students are far better able
  to manage themselves in group work on the Land
  Survey Field Course than in previous years
• A high proportion of students near the bottom of
  the class had been identified early in the year
  as having a problem with English language but
  did not attend remedial classes arranged
  specially for them
• More students (gt20) now engage with Global
  Citizenship - International Programmes and
  voluntary work overseas

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3rd year structure

• 25 - Research project (in pairs)
• 50 - Compulsory courses in Structures,
  Materials, Design, Fluids and Mathematics
• 25 - Two optional courses selected from
  Geotechnics Coastal Eng Environmental Systems
  Geomatics Transport Finance Law
  Entrepeneurship Management

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4th year structure

• 50 - Integrated Design (in teams) addressing a
  large infrastructure project from feasibility
  study to detailed design
• 12.5 - Compulsory course in Civil Engineering
  Failures and Qualitative Analysis
• 37.5 - Three optional courses selected from
  Geotechnics Coastal Eng Environmental Systems
  Transport Finance Entrepeneurship Asset
  Management, Project Planning and Maintenance
  Design of Roads, Rail, Bridges, Tunnels and
  Embankments Construction Law and the Design Team

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Negative views

• Initial resistance from traditionalists
  largely overcome by the inclusive framework
  structure of quarters and scenarios
• Excessive workload reduced as the new scheme
  became familiar
• Academics lack relevant experience development
  of Scenarios has created new industrial links,
  and staff have been awarded Royal Academy (RAE)
  Industrial Secondments to develop practical
  skills
• Core material seen to be lost from 1st and 2nd
  year essential material has cascaded into later
  parts of the programme, other topics dropped
• Against College regulations rules had to be
  bent to accommodate the hybrid timetable and
  single-course assessment for 1st and 2nd years

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The student view

• Very positive about Scenarios they are
  stressful, but good stress!
• Better guidance is needed to explain initially
  what is expected of students during each Scenario
• Make-up of groups and poor contributions from
  weaker or lazy students is seen as a problem
• Poor engagement with Fluids and Soils so no
  change there! But generally very motivated and
  looking forward to their future careers
• Supplementary classes are required for maths,
  chemistry and biology they would welcome a
  pre-sessional refresher course
• Students without Maths A-level have finished with
  excellent marks
• The student cohort is seen as an extended
  family they enjoy the teamwork

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The external view

• Airport Scenario led by RAE Visiting Professor
  in Systems Engineering external review of
  presentations reported them realistic and
  representative of life on a major project
  quality of student work impressive systems
  techniques excellent
• SE England Water Scenario input from local
  consultant (Arup)
• commented on advanced state of design and
  transferable skills for 2nd year students in
  comparison to their own experiences
• Community Centre cost-benefit analysis with
  disruptions to the project associated with
  finance, grants, planning and engineering final
  oral presentation in front of a committee of
  experts
• St Albans Traffic and Pollution Scenario County
  Council, City Council and consultants provide
  data, project context and feedback on student
  work

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Accreditation

• All Civil and Environmental Engineering degrees
  have been accredited by the Joint Board of
  Moderators
• Environmental Engineering degrees are also
  accredited by CIWEM the report from their visit
  in March 2009 commended the department for the
• Systems Engineering approach
• Innovative structure of 1st and 2nd year and role
  of Scenarios
• Innovative components such as Environmental
  Engineering in Practice (which includes the
  Constructionarium)
• Opportunities to engage with industry,
  practitioners and guest speakers
• Course Teams engagement with industry
• Research and consultancy activity which feeds
  into the course

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Summary

• Staff have engaged with radically new degree
  programmes
• Better and broader-based students are being
  recruited
• Academic results are improving
• Students are maintaining motivation throughout
  their studies
• Students are more engaged with the outside world

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Admissions

• Require AAA-AAB
• No specific requirement for Mathematics, Physics,
  Chemistry or Biology
• English language requirements need attention

Selection afternoons - mini-scenarios - tours
of College - special interviews The Birling
Gap Question - to defend or not to defend?