Need for “Professional” Education for Professional Engineers

Abstract

A profession is defined as “an occupation or vocation requiring advanced study in a specialized field.” The urgent question facing the engineering profession today is how much longer we can continue to lay claim to being “professionals” given the increasingly complex natures of technology and our society and the lack of adequate curriculum adjustment to meet the demands of this changing environment. Within the past 20, even 10, years, our world has changed drastically. All of these technological advances have mandated inclusion in the engineering curriculum of related coursework. However, much of this additional coursework has been added in the postbaccalaureate curriculum, and the addition of this technical material, which has been accomplished in the undergraduate curriculum, generally has been implemented at the expense of the “nontechnical” courses in the curriculum. This paper presents ideas regarding the expansion of the basic engineering curriculum and the courses necessary to provide a complete education for professional engineers.