ENGINEERING ISSUES AT OUR PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES AND ERB

Dear Sir,

                      I would like to thank you for the great effort you have put in resolving the case between ERB and the Kenyan universities. It is very encouraging that ERB is concerned with the quality of Engineering Education offered by our public universities. Nevertheless, the board is also required to be current and in tandem with the modern Engineering approaches to design solutions for different problems.  On the international arena it is evident that engineering field has exploded and many courses being offered are being specialized. Though the specialization does not give room to ignore the basic engineering sciences :( Mechanics [dynamics, statics, and kinematics]; Thermodynamics & heat Transfer, Fluids, Materials, Design, Mathematics, Practical activities among other).

                   My main question is, have you objectively devoted your time to go through the full courses as offered in Egerton University for example? And have compared that curriculum with other international universities that offer the same course? My opinion is that you take this curriculum and compare them with their modern international counterparts. You will find that in most of these engineering courses have general designs where the basic engineering courses mentioned above are covered intensively in the initial years after which they specialize to the majors. Looking at Manufacturing Engineering and Technology you find that in the first & Second years they cover most of mechanical engineering courses (the unfortunate thing is that they cover a very comprehensive area within a short time giving students a lot of stress) for instance the full courses of Mechanics of Machines, Thermal dynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Strength of materials, and Material Science. These courses are taught fully, these are evident in the examination papers and even their [graduates] master of the material after the university.  

                Looking at other international curriculum for Manufacturing Engineering and Technology you will realize that the Egerton Course is fine. May be there is need to split the courses into small many units as you did at your time. But these might not be feasible because of other technological requirements such as the need to integrate Computing [CNC, CADCAM] fully, Management Science, Environmental skills, Electronics, Electrical, Quality control and process planning courses in Manufacturing Engineering & Technology.  You will also notice that the problem is in naming of courses and their actual content; in fact these are the biggest discrepancies.  The board has to know that these students have actually covered all the required mechanical materials (for Manufacturing) and all the electrical and electronics (for Instrumentation and control) and living testimony has it that they are doing better in Design, Innovation, Material planning, Control of Electro-mechanical systems than their friends who only did Mechanical Engineering or Electrical engineering or civil because they have gone through a multidisciplinary curriculum that has given them multidisciplinary approaches to problems and therefore designing an integrated solution that is optimal. In the near future your resistance might be misinterpreted to be a hindrance to a competitive quality oriented results. Since Engineers are not respected for what they used to know but what they can do and will be able to do, it is prudent that you re-examine your decisions and objectively handle the matter. For instance look at the manufacturing engineering curriculum at: http://www.centralstate.edu/academics/bus_ind/mfe_iet/mfe/courses.html,

http://www.ie.ndsu.nodak.edu/curriculum/me_curriculum.html , http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/academic/factsheets/eng_arch/manuf.shtml, http://www.uwstout.edu/programs/bsmfe/index.cfm, from all these sites you will come across prominent universities offering this course and its outline. You will realize that the course is unique and therefore requires unique approaches, not like the classical Mechanical Engineering as it were.  My last word is that you may need to be certifying engineers by specifically indicating their area of operation as indicated by their majors and work place competency. But not thinking that all engineers should bear either a mechanical tag or Electrical tag. For these people you are thinking are not qualified have more qualifications than somebody having only Mechanical or Electrical Engineering and are result oriented.  Engineering as you know is not just a name but is cemented with solid visible evidence of performance. To sum up, in the current competitive environment we need dynamic minds and thinkers if you look at countries driving world technology you will see that they don’t offer  the courses we Kenyans are worshiping or belief in, they changed from Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering to more specialized areas to mount credible research and innovations. I therefore wish that you will let wisdom to overcome malice and take corrective measures to rectify this situation. Thank you.

Sincerely

 Geoffrey. K. Makhanu