Engineering Education Facing New Challenges in the Learning Society: Case Finland

1. Engineering Education Facing New Challenges in the Learning Society: Case Finland ASEE ”21st Century Engineer” November, 2 - 3, 2001 Kati Yrjänheikki Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers TEK Minna Takala Helsinki University of Technology and New Jersey Institute of Technology

2. Overview of TEK • Association for Finnish engineers graduated from universities (Master’s or Ph.D. degree) • Founded in 1896 • 55 000 members – 70 % of all university-level engineers in Finland • Promotes development of technology for the best of human, nature and society interests • Promotes labor market value of Finnish engineers (collective bargaining), develops engineering education and provides membership services • 5 offices in Finland – active international co-operation

3. Activities of TEK Labor market policy Educational policy General social policy Technology policy Membership services

4. System of education has a key role in the Information Society • Success increasingly based on knowledge, skills and ability to learn. • Factors that have been driving skill needs: • arrival of Information Society • increased global competition • rapid development of new technology • Shift towards service industries • Redesign of work and organizational structures • Striving for sustainable development • New, more, more demanding and constantly changing skill needs

5. GLOBAL COMPETITION ARRIVAL OF INFORMATION SOCIETY SERVICE INDUSTRIES basic IT skills foreign languages multidisciplinarity networking commitment to quality creativity global village attitude teamwork GOOD GENERAL EDUCATION commitment to sustainable development communication handle stress entrepreneurial attitude learn how to learn cope with constant change manage time self-steering ability to search, classify and analyze information REDESIGN OF WORK AND ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY Source: Korhonen, K. 1997. Master’s thesis. Educating Engineers of the 21st Century – The Challenges of Higher Engineering Education in Finland”. LIFELONG LEARNING

6. higher level of average education from subject-based to skill-based curriculum good general education new learning technologies in use well managed educational chain NEW SKILL REQUIREMENTS MORE SKILL REQUIREMENTS MORE DEMANDING SKILL REQUIREMENTS FAST CHANGING SKILL REQUIREMENTS close co-operation between university and industry lifelong learning continuous quality improvement of education Source: Korhonen, K. 1997. Master’s thesis. Educating Engineers of the 21st Century – The Challenges of Higher Engineering Education in Finland”.

7. Requirements for the general level of education are rising • Finland: Shift of a hierarchal industry-based economy to a knowledge-based Information Society during 1990s. • Investment in R&D and high-tech export among top countries in the world • 70 % of each age group educated at university or polytechnics • B.Sc. and M.Sc. student numbers in engineering doubled during 1990 – 2000 • Number of Ph.D. degrees in engineering increased by 50 % during 1990 – 2000 • Quantity vs. quality? Lack of resources is reality. • Problem of forecasting labor market demand

8. Intensive co-operation between stakeholders University Polytechnics Policymakers Engineering Education Alumni Other experts Engineering students Industry • Finland ranked number one globally in co-operation between • companies and universities • M.Sc. graduates have on average 20 months working experience

9. Life-long learning – must for all professionals • Not a new subject to be added to the curriculum, but rather a state of mind • How to increase skills for continuous learning • new teaching methods: problem based learning etc. • interdisciplinarity • motivation through practical work experience and combination of work and studies • Impossible to provide engineering student with all skills she / he might need, when entering professional skills • What are fundamental objectives of engineering education?

10. Increased need for interdisciplinarity • Results of engineering research utilized broadly also outside technology • increased number of non-technology innovations • new innovations increasingly in between two or more industrial clusters • Teamwork and networking key issues • Multi skilled: specialist and generalist at the same time? • ICT supporting interdisciplinary studies • Improvement of engineer’s judgment and awareness of professional and ethical responsibility

11. ”If you know what this business is going to look five years from now, I want to know what you have been smoking…”

12. Ability to deal with uncertainty Andambiguity Professional and ethical responsibility Ability to lead and manage human resources Good communication skills Internationalization skills Commitment to quality Ability to teamwork Good knowledge of one’s major technicaldiscipline SOLID BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES AND IT Good engineer in the Learning Society? Source: Korhonen, K. 1997. Master’s thesis. Educating Engineers of the 21st Century – The Challenges of Higher Engineering Education in Finland”. ABILITY AND WILLINGNESS TO LEARN

13. FuturEng project overview • Objective is to find out challenges of engineering education in the new knowledge-intensive economy and at the same time have an impact on engineering education future • All important stakeholders of engineering education included in the project • Funding from Finnish companies, Ministry of education, EU and TEK. • Implemented during 2000 – 2003 • Six subprojects

14. Subprojects of FuturEng • ”Evolutionary futures research on the Finnish engineering education up to 2015” (Kati Yrjänheikki, Project Manager, Dissertation) • Research on the feedback and follow-up systems in engineering education (Sanna Allt, Researcher, Master’s thesis) • Engineering education in Finland – recent statistics (will be published in December 2001) • Research on the learning environment in engineering education (Johanna Hartikainen, Researcher, part of Ph.D. studies) • Women and technology network activities • Research on the development needs of Ph.D. studies in engineering (published in March 2001)

15. Issues to be researched, discussed and negotiated • Fundamental changes in education system e.g. co-operation with universities, polytechnics and industry, network structures, centralization vs. decentralization • Fundamental changes in engineering education philosophy • EU and global trends in engineering education • Engineering education contents and structures (degrees and institutions) • Stakeholder co-operation • Educational planning and development and feedback and evaluation systems

16. Thank you! More information about FuturEng at www.tek.fi/futureng kati.yrjanheikki@tek.fi minnatakala@home.com

17. Suomen korkean teknologian tuotteiden tuonti ja vientiImports and exports of high technology products in Finland Source: Tilastokeskus, Statistics Finland

18. Kokonaispanostus T&K-toimintaan asukasta kohden 1998Gross domestic expenditure on R&D per capita population in 1998 Source. OECD: Main Science and Technology Indicators

19. T&K suhteessa BKT:een R&D as a share of GDP

20. Korkean teknologian tuotteiden ulkomaankauppa 1999 High-tech export 1999

21. Suunniteltu matematiikan ja tieteiden oppituntimäärä vuodessa 12 – 14 vuotiaille 1998 Intended mathematics and science instruction hours per year for students aged between 12 and 14 in 1998 Source: OECD: Education at a Glance

22. Tekniikan alan osuus kaikista kolmannen aseen tutkinnoista 1998Share of tertiary level degrees in engineering, manufacturing and constructionin 1998 Source: OECD: Education at a Glance

23. Number of students that took long course in mathematics and intakes of engineering education in Finland 1999

24. Tohtorintutkinnot tieteenaloittain Suomessa vuonna 1999Doctorate degrees by branch of science in Finland in 1999 Source: Ministry of Education, Finland, KOTA

25. Tertiary education, annual expenditure per student in equivalent US dollars in 1997