5. STEPS TOWARD IMPLEMENTATION

5.3. Incentives and Policies in Teaching

• The rewards for good teaching performance must be made as attractive than those for good research. Enhanced means must be found to recognize and reward outstanding teachers. Surveys of past graduates show that the influence of certain outstanding teachers is the predominant factor in their assessment of the value of their university education.

• There are many national and international awards accessible to professors for superior research performance. These are highly publicized and the winners of such awards are regarded as the stars of the university. Similar prominence should be given to awards for excellence in teaching.

• The introductory courses for engineering students should be taught by the best and most experienced professors. These are the people who should have acquired the greatest breadth of knowledge, the widest experience, the best command of fundamental concepts, and the greatest sensitivity to the essence of engineering design and practice. Most of those meeting the desired criteria are likely to be within the engineering faculties.

• In most universities, the responsibility for teaching the basic sciences and mathematics to undergraduate students rests with departments outside the engineering faculty. While the students have been admitted directly to engineering programs, their effective contact with engineering may be delayed by a year or more, leading to potential loss of the motivation which attracted them to engineering. This practice also tends to perpetuate the linear unintegrated approach to engineering education discussed earlier.

• Many engineering courses for senior and postgraduate students can be taught competently by junior professors or by adjunct professors from the external community. These are persons who are likely to have state of the art knowledge of the material. At this stage, the students are already familiar with most of the language, conventions, habits and concepts of their engineering discipline. The demands on the instructor for breadth of knowledge and teaching experience are less. The classes are smaller and dialogue is easier to encourage. The environment and the audience is more forgiving of teaching shortcomings.

• At present, many professors prefer assignment to a specialized subject in the senior year of the undergraduate curriculum as this facilitates recruitment of good graduate students.

RECOMMENDATION 51 :Engineering faculties should ensure that the rewards for good teaching are made as attractive as those of good research.

RECOMMENDATION 52: Recognizing the importance of knowledge, skill and broad experience in teaching an introductory course for engineering students, engineering faculties should make such an assignment a mark of career accomplishment for a professor.