On Monday 18 March, Engineers Without Borders UK launched the Reimagined Degree Map – an interactive guide, co-created with the Royal Academy of Engineering, to support engineering departments to navigate the decisions that are urgently required to prepare students for 21st-century challenges.
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Being equipped to act sustainably, ethically, and equitably is crucial for all engineers. As a concept, ‘global responsibility’ in engineering recognises the need to consider all three of these aspects together in decision-making.
Made up of six worksheets that are designed to facilitate constructive conversations within engineering departments, the Reimagined Degree Map guides teams along a four-hour journey to integrate global responsibility within any engineering degree, whether this be civil, mechanical or another discipline. In following the exercises, teams are supported to not only identify the meaningful interventions for change, but to foster trust, generate ideas, and shape a culture ready to meet ambitious goals.
In order to deliver interventions to achieve this change, more specific guidance, knowledge and teaching tools are signposted within the guide. Included within this is the Engineering Professors Council’s ‘Sustainability Toolkit’, which was launched on Monday in tandem with the Map as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s ‘Engineers 2030’ work. The flagship policy project is exploring what is needed to attract, educate, recruit and support the engineers and technicians of the future.
“Engineers 2030 is rethinking engineering and technology skills for a world in which both people and planet can thrive. For this vision to become a reality, we need the estimated quarter of a million people who graduate in the UK with an engineering degree before 2030 to be ahead of the curve.
The Reimagined Degree Map provides tangible support to enable this shift. You can use the Map regardless of your institutions starting point – whether you are already innovating with your teaching or struggling to do so – to develop shared intentions in four hours. At its heart, the Map guides a journey that helps you navigate decisions, and it consolidates and translates a breadth of experience, research and expertise in how to best educate tomorrow’s engineers.”
Emma Crichton, Director of Innovation at Engineers Without Borders UK
The Map, which has been endorsed by the Engineering Council, Institution of Mechanical Engineers and IOM3 (Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining), has been developed through extensive collaboration with educators, students, professionals, accrediting bodies, and engineering institutions.
Since September 2023, this collective of over 200 change makers from over 25 universities and 22 companies have participated in our ongoing Systems Change Lab, to help co-create and test the exercises included within the Map.
For additional support in using the Map, Engineers Without Borders UK welcomes you to get in touch – whether this be to facilitate conversations within departments or to help gather a broad range of perspectives. Please get in touch with us at [email protected].
