Q&A: Inside the university leading the way in sustainable engineering and technology education

We are moving away from the traditional approach of programme delivery, where students would primarily attend formal lectures two to three times a week and are replacing this with informal, open-plan spaces, and basing a lot of what we do on project-based learning. Typically, a project brief will be introduced that might run for a number of weeks, and then different topics will be informally presented through discussions, seminars and tutorials in a less formal setting.

Because the work is project-based and interdisciplinary, it will involve students using equipment a lot more than they traditionally would. We want students to develop a hands-on approach, to experience the feel of equipment and understand how it works in order to apply that when they work in industry. 

In order to do this, we are developing partnerships with a number of key stakeholders. We are keen to develop partnerships not only with local employers but also with local authorities with respect to the people who live in those authorities and what their needs are.  

We are also talking to other bodies that deal with some of the challenging issues with respect to diversity, including the lack of women in the built environment sector. Equality, diversity and inclusion is one of our key commitments.  

Like most built environment departments in the HE sector, we are driven almost entirely by professional body requirements. This a challenge, because our programme delivery has got to satisfy the professional bodies that validate and accredit our courses, and more so because of the interdisciplinary nature of our programme development plans. 

There is a recognised lack of knowledge and skills with respect to the most basic issues associated with sustainability. We are committed to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and these are embedded in everything that we do, and into our programme curricula.  

The other critical thing here is that we are establishing a professional advisory board to influence the curriculum development, and to guide us on what knowledge and skills our graduates need to be practice-ready. 

Graduates often leave university having learned about a whole series of different subjects, but they rarely have experience of the practical application of this knowledge in a working environment. So, we will offer placement opportunities and opportunities to study abroad. We want our students to be exposed to industry and real-life situations and projects.  

It has always been a challenge because in many cases, students come to us wanting to study a particular discipline when they will not have had any formal education in that field. Sadly, some students spend a year or two, studying one discipline only to discover that it is not what they want to do, or it is not for them.  

One of the approaches we are taking to deal with this situation is built into our programmes, because we share a lot of the teaching and share a lot of the modules. You might come to us studying the first year of construction management and then find that you prefer the architectural technology programme, and so we are designing our programmes to maximise opportunities for moving between disciplines wherever possible.  

There are very specific requirements for some of our programmes. For example, if you wanted to join our undergraduate programme in civil engineering, you would have to have a strong background in maths and science. Without this background, you would likely need to enrol first on a foundation programme where the basic knowledge and skills in maths and science would be developed. 

We would expect architecture applicants to have some sort of art and design background, but we would also expect them to have studied maths or physics because architecture is becoming an increasingly technical and scientific discipline.