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I will begin by admitting that
the first version of this article had a different title. It was “The idea of
a university and the authority of ideas”. The first part is the title of the
famous book by John Henry Newman published in 1859 and the second is a
phrase from an article by Professor Laurence Summers, President of Harvard
University, written in 2003. I had chosen it because the idea of a
university education was elegantly argued in Newman’s book in a way that
might suggest that engineering is
not an appropriate subject to study in university. He is critical of
“sacrificing” the intellect to “some specific trade or profession”. On the
other hand, Summers’ phrase about “the authority of ideas” suggests that it
is the ideas themselves that are important.
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Newman believes that a university should cultivate the mind with a Liberal
Education.
Many engineering and technology courses were originally established to meet
an economic need, and we are right to ask to what extent the values of a
university education as espoused by Newman are now being met by these
courses. It is my opinion (and not everyone agrees with it) that learning
how to think for yourself – to formulate and express your own solutions to
problems – is the key attribute of a university education. Some people
believe that you only get this from studying arts and humanities subjects,
but I would argue that engineering, by virtue of its problem-solving
orientation,
is one of the better subjects for learning how to do it.
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Engineering is taught in a variety of ways in each of the Universities and
Institutes of Technology in Ireland. In Trinity College, this includes
Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering, Mechanical & Manufacturing
Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Computer Science. The courses aim
to give students both a foundation in engineering sciences, and a specialist
understanding of the technologies particular to a chosen discipline. A
similar range of disciplines is covered in other institutions.
The main objective of engineering is to solve technical problems by analysis
and design.
However, solving technical problems involves knowledge of a whole range of
techniques including a mathematical and scientific analysis of the problem.
Therefore engineers need to learn science, and the engineering sciences take
up a large amount of time in the early years. Occasionally students are
disappointed by the lack of practical work at this stage; but without the
mathematical and scientific foundation it is difficult if not impossible for
engineers to understand the technologies that will
develop in the future. For example, in my own work, I spend much time
analysing biological systems,
a topic that did not exist in the engineering curriculum even 10 years ago.
Also, precisely because these subjects are difficult, they are ideal for
training the mind in “how to think”. Many practising engineers are involved
in management and financial aspects of projects where lateral (and rational)
thinking are essential. This too, we hope, they will have learned as part
and parcel of their undergraduate education.
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Yet we are in challenging times for all universities. Here are some ideas
for us all to think about.
A recently published document Challenges Facing Irish Universities (Royal
Irish Academy, 2003),
gives some scenarios for the future of third-level education; for example,
universities like TCD
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• are doomed – “the future is outside the traditional classroom, outside the
traditional campus”.
Virtual information sources created by electronic-media will break the
universities’ monopoly on
information and learning. Traditional universities, they say, are already
ruins – if only we could see it,
or
• will be replaced by universities located in the workplace. Microsoft, and
other cash-rich
multinationals, will educate their own employees in their own campuses,
or
• will suffer because globalization will create a few major Harvard-like
centres where the world
population will migrate to for education, with second-tier universities
left elsewhere.
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I should conclude with some more general remarks about the future of
universities. In the distant past, a university might have been described as
lecturers and students in close proximity to a library. The lecturers read
in the library and imparted the information to the students. The difference
now,
we like to think, is that the students are more likely to go back and check
things out for themselves. However things may change in the future, one
thing must remain constant, and that is the
importance of ideas: understanding ideas, teaching ideas, questioning ideas,
debating ideas.
Ideas should make their own authority though the process of questioning and
debate, whether it be the latest engineering theory about the design of
bridges or the ancient ideas of Plato’s republic.
We should all be learners in a University, both the faculty members and the
students.
With that as a pre-requisite, the future of Irish Universities and
Institutes of Technology will
continue to be strong, and to grow in strength.
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