The Place of the Liberal Arts in Engineering Education and their Relation to International Collaborative and Exchange Programs

Presented to the  UICEE  Congress  in  Bangkok, Thailand, July 2004

Copywrite Harold P. Sjursen 

ABSTRACT: This discussion presents reflections upon two particular trends in engineering education:   (1) the recognition that the liberal arts are more than just a supplement and enrichment to engineering education but should be at the core, and (2) the need imposed by commerce and industry to advance engineering practices in a way that responds to international needs and global standards.    The underlying question is whether these two trends can be addressed together, enriching liberal arts education for engineers through programs that focus on international cooperation.    The reflections will focus on

•  curriculum design and evaluation and the relevance of liberal education,

•  international collaborative programs and systems.

•  social and philosophical aspects of engineering and its impact on modern societies,

•  academia/industry interaction programs.

The first two items will be addressed in specific sections; the second two will be discussed in passing.

Curriculum Design and Evaluation and the Relevance of Liberal Education

C.P. Snow’s two culture paradigm is alive and well in engineering colleges. [1]   Learning for the sake of learning, tradition’s defense of liberal education, has virtually no place in the productivity driven curriculum of a modern engineering school.   At least in the United States where engineering schools are said to be equivalent to universities and colleges, granting after a mere four years a credential both certifying professional competence and bestowing the privileges of education, the pressure to demonstrate relevance or utility is the key requirement for admission to the curriculum.   Moreover this relevancy must be recognized within positive evaluations given by students, employers and advisors from industry. This strict standard of practical relevancy has led either to the outright dismissal of the liberal arts as having no place within engineering education or more frequently to their subjugation and reduction to a “skill set” valued for its lucid communication.  

The dominant educational values at engineering institutions fly in the face of deeply ingrained values held by faculty representing liberal arts disciplines.   Given their minority status liberal arts faculty have no choice but to defend their disciplines according to the standards of utility and relevance, something many find quite distasteful and which may not be possible in any event.    The two-culture phenomenon is exacerbated as each side digs in to assert the continuing validity of the earlier norms for presenting their knowledge base.  

This conflict is more evident when the engineering school is responsible for the entire curriculum. The issue of resource allocation is resolved in favor of the majority meaning that the liberal arts component of the curriculum is likely to be under funded.   When the liberal arts component is provided to the engineering school by another division of the university, the college of arts and sciences for example, and the engineering school only pays for the direct instructional costs, the liberal arts become a bargain.   If the engineering school on the other hand is responsible for all the costs of liberal arts education, including course development, library expenses, faculty sabbaticals and so on, although still less costly per student credit hour than courses in engineering, computer and natural science, when measured strictly by the relevancy criterion the liberal arts appear to be excessively expensive.

The choices facing curriculum planners required to preserve a meaningful element of liberal arts instruction within engineering programs appear to range from a weak truce to a state of armed neutrality.   The attainment of an enduring peace seems beyond reach.   However this pessimistic outlook may be revised if one considers how to restructure the curriculum around new norms that integrate the values, techniques and knowledge base of the liberal arts into a program that sees technology as a meaningful aporia worthy of serious investigation.   To that end several theses, in some cases deliberately provocative, are suggested.

Theses:

1. The relevancy criterion when viewed from the side of the liberal arts appears to be little more than anti-intellectualism. This form of anti-intellectualism, if we can permit that term, is expressed often in various ways by institutional boards, engineering school administrators and, as noted above, a not insignificant portion of engineering faculties (as well as predictably and understandably by most of the students and recent alumni of engineering schools). This attitude is damaging to the well-being and future of the engineering education on every level.

1. An education that respects today’s global political and economic realities and embraces contemporary technology must place the liberal arts at the heart of the curriculum.   The liberal arts can no longer be viewed as a supplement helpful for making engineers and technologists well rounded; rather the liberal arts must be valued as the reagent essential in order to comprehend the complexity of contemporary technology.   And what are the liberal arts?   Language, literature, history, philosophy, mathematics and natural science constitute the core liberal arts and they are what in a contemporary curriculum must be carefully correlated with the training necessary to master the practical arts.

1. An education should help students think critically using the best tools civilization has devised.   What are the best tools?   They are language, logic and mathematics.   An education should help students make sound judgments and act responsibly. Which disciplines promote those abilities?   Economics, history, literature and philosophy provide the best examples and encourage the most reflection.   Educated persons should be able to solve problems, possess practical skills and produce wealth.   These abilities emerge from mastery of the practical arts, which themselves are forever changing.   Engineering, business, management and all technologies fall under these practical arts. Thus an education has three main components: (a), the tools of critical thinking; (b), the disciplines that teach judgment and responsible action; (c), the practical arts.

1. Technology itself is deeply political and asserts economic and social values.   It is a serious mistake and intellectually dishonest to pretend otherwise.   If we hope to graduate students who will become leaders rather than mere ciphers in an economic society we need to thematize the political, economic and social aspects of technology throughout our curriculum.  

1. An undergraduate educational curriculum that sustains a dialogue between technology and the traditional arts and sciences is inherently exciting, will attract strong students and is feasible at traditional engineering schools without extensive retooling or substantial startup investment.

These theses and others deserve serious consideration and deliberation by engineering faculties.   Together they assert the proposition that engineering is not a value free discipline.   On the contrary engineering is inseparable and in some cases even indistinguishable from many of the core activities and disciplines of the traditional liberal arts.   Certainly technology embraces aesthetic, ethical, political and historical issues and suggests approaches worthy of critique, evaluation and review.    This activity, integral to the engineering process, is at the very heart of the liberal arts.

International Collaborative Programs and Systems

Theses two and four above point to the international and global aspects of engineering and technological activity in general.   Is it possible to accomplish the re-norming of the liberal arts component of engineering education through the introduction of international collaborative programs?   Would this approach dilute engineering content?   Would communications skills be taught as effectively?   Would the critical attitude essential to genuine education be attained?

The specific objectives of international education for engineering students fall into three categories: (a) the relevant teaching of the broad cultural-historical understanding requisite to success in the global environment; (b) the enhancement of communications skills, written, oral and inter-personal, to a level appropriate to the professional responsibilities of engineers; (c) a recognition of the many settings and situations where technologies are deployed including an awareness of the human costs and benefits of technological change.

International education easily satisfies the relevancy criterion.   Even a cursory understanding of the economic forces operative today reveals international trade, technology transfer and the outsourcing of labor to be determinative of the future of the engineering profession.   Any engineering graduate not prepared to work in a global environment is clearly at a disadvantage.   The serious question is only how a rigorous engineering program can be conducted while at the same time adding the values of international experience.   Unfortunately the answer cannot be merely for engineering students to study at foreign universities.   Engineering students have not been taught the methods of interpretation necessary to understand the alien practices they will experience abroad nor are they likely to have a background that informs them of the historical, political, social, and cultural differences between their home and host nations.   Also the amount of time that can be devoted to international study will in most cases be quite limited.   A structured and systematic collaborative program is necessary to ensure that the desired objectives are met.

Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, NY has devised two types of programs to address these objectives. [2] The first is the Polytechnic Semester Abroad and the second is the 1-2-1 Academic Exchange program.

Polytechnic Semester Abroad:

The Polytechnic Semester Abroad is a traveling semester involving up to 40 undergraduate students representing all disciplines and 4 teaching faculty.   Each semester abroad travels to one geographical region in the world (e.g., east Asia).   Regular Polytechnic faculty instructors teach regular humanities courses that fulfill graduation requirements during the trip.   The courses taught abroad are modified from their regular on-campus versions to emphasize topics germane to the area being visited.   Four courses are taught during the semester and all students take all four courses.   The courses themselves are carefully correlated to each other as well as to the geographic region.   The combination of courses is conceived to leave the students with a strong understanding of the region from diverse standpoints: traditional and modern culture including art, music, literature and drama, political, economic and social history, natural resources and environmental issues; US-visiting region commercial, economic and political issues; the state of contemporary technology in the region.  

While traveling in the region the students are hosted by local universities where they benefit from special lectures and presentations, visit important local sites, and of course develop relationships with students at the host universities.   On the recent semester in East Asia the students had an intense introduction to the history of American intervention in the region by trips to Hiroshima, the DMZ dividing North and South Korea, the site in Vietnam of the Mai Lai massacre and the Killing Fields in Cambodia.   This list only exemplifies one aspect of the learning experience.   Communications skills were built by requiring all students to keep a copious journal, by giving oral presentations to their peers at host institutions and by created a website for the trip that became an ongoing report to their home community.

1-2-1 Academic Exchange Program:

This program is to bring students from abroad to Polytechnic to study for two years.   Students spend their first academic year at their home institution, then spend the middle two years at Polytechnic before returning to their home institution for the final year of study.   After successful completion of the 4 years of study the students receive both the BS degree from Polytechnic as well as a baccalaureate degree from their home institution. The students, consequently, will truly be regular students simultaneously working toward degrees at two universities in two countries under two systems. Let us consider the process as described in a recently signed agreement between Polytechnic and Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.  

“To be admitted to the Program, students must meet the admissions requirements of both Universities. Those students admitted to Sichuan and deemed eligible for the Program by Sichuan will then be considered for admission to Polytechnic based on their academic achievement, their promise of success with the Program in light of English language proficiency, and their completion of Polytechnic placement and diagnostic tests. (a)   Academic Achievement .   In lieu of Polytechnic’s normal expectation of high SAT scores, candidates must achieve an appropriately high score, as defined by the program administrators, on China’s National University Entrance Examination (NUEE).    (b) English Language Proficiency . Candidates must have completed two full semesters of English during their freshman year at Sichuan, or received equivalent credits. In addition, they must have demonstrated proof of English language proficiency with an acceptable score, as determined by the Administrators, on a reputable standardized test such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), or the English language portion of the NUEE. (c) Results of Polytechnic Testing : Candidates must have submitted results from Polytechnic's English Reading and Writing placement test, and Mathematics diagnostic test.  These tests will be administered to all Program participants in April of the first year of study at Sichuan. Note Polytechnic will provide electronic study guides and sample tests to all participants in September of their first year of study at Sichuan .”   [3]

As the agreement points out the above schedule of diagnostic testing and eligibility determination occurs during the student’s first year of study at their home institution. In addition to successful performance in their first year studies and a positive determination on the diagnostic tests the student must follow a program of study that permits entry into the second and third years of study at Polytechnic without any deficits. This is necessary if the student is going to pursue the rigorous curriculum of an ABET accredited engineering degree. Each student’s academic program will be established individually prior to their arrival in the United States to ensure their ability to complete all requirements during the permitted time frame.   Because this implies, for example, that a student studying bio-technology will have to devote 100% of their study during the four regular semesters during the two years in the United States to courses in science, engineering and technical subjects, the middle summer is used for intensive study in the humanities. During this summer all students in the 1-2-1 Program participate in an intensive and well-coordinated humanities program.

The summer humanities program for students from abroad resembles in its intent and design the Polytechnic Semester Abroad described above.   The geographic region of study is of course the United States but the courses are similarly correlated to teach about the history, culture and society of the United States.   The political and economic relations of the United States to their home countries are discussed.   Travel within the Eastern United States (to the national capital in Washington, DC and Revolutionary War memorials in the Boston area for example) is included as well as visits to museums, musical and theatre performances and other events in New York City. The role of technology is always kept in view and a consideration of its implications for larger societal matters serves as one of the key organizing principles for the summer experience.  

The humanities are connected to the students’ study in the academic years before and after the middle summer intensive program in specific ways. During the first year, as students are adjusting to life in the United States, the Humanities Department supplies writing tutors to students in the 1-2-1 program.   The principle involved is that although the students have demonstrated an adequate degree of proficiency in English they do not yet think naturally in English, nor do they organize their thoughts in ways typical in their host culture.   Writing support therefore is a powerful mode for teaching cultural norms.   Writing support is continued during the second year at the student’s request.   Also during the second year 1-2-1 Program participants are given the opportunity for guided visits to a number of local institutions such as government offices, the stock exchange and Wall Street financial firms, and the United Nations as well as high-tech research and industrial facilities.

When 1-2-1 students return to their home institutions they are on track to complete both the Polytechnic degree and the degree from their home institution.   The program is designed to require students to return home partly in order to satisfy visa requirements, but more importantly to complete the educational process of balancing two cultures and two curricula in a fulfilling and meaningful sense.   The objective is for students not simply to have had an international experience but rather to have lived deeply engaged in another society and to have become aware, as insiders, of the normative values and traditions of that society.

Conclusion

This discussion began by commenting on the tension within engineering education between two traditions, philosophical approaches and styles of learning as represented by the tradition of rigorous technical training on the one hand and the liberal arts on the other.   The requirement of the modern engineering curriculum, demanding the integration of both within a four-year program, is difficult under the best of circumstances.   C.P. Snow’s two-culture paradigm suggested not only a way to think about the problem but a possible and practical solution as well. The solution involves embracing difference and exploring the commonalities provided by technology.   Technology in our day turns out to be a kind of universal language, one that unites peoples of disparate traditional and geographically defined cultures but also connects the two cultures referred to by Snow. The opportunity exists to integrate the liberal arts into the engineering curriculum because technology exists as a commonality to both.

The claim that technology is central to the liberal arts may sound strange to the engineer, possibly because engineering technologies tend to be based on science and mathematics whereas the technologies of the liberal arts reside more in language.   Still the commonality is strong and permits the natural and effective integration of the liberal arts into engineering studies.   This strategy is strengthened by incorporating liberal arts into a program of international studies, itself a desirable and even necessary addition to the engineering curriculum.   

[1] C P Snow, The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution (1959).

[2] Polytechnic University, formerly known simply as “Brooklyn Poly”, now celebrating its sesquicentennial, is the second oldest private engineering school in the United States.

[3] Excerpted from a Memo of Understanding signed by Polytechnic University and Sichuan University.