Case for Undergraduate Study of Disasters

Abstract

Literature on disasters provides the focus for student-based learning exercises in civil and architectural engineering at Queen's University, Belfast, which have been ongoing since 1994. Incorporating these studies in the early part of the curriculum helps students to reorientate from their previous mainly science-based study by gaining some knowledge of the roles, responsibilities, priorities, and work practices of engineers in a way that would not be possible through lectures. In view of the influence of disasters on engineering thinking and work practice, they should have a much larger influence than they currently do on curriculum development.