Engineering Education in Canadian Universities

6. RESOURCES FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION

• Canada's future wealth and prosperity will depend in large measure on the incorporation of superior skill, intelligence and added value into its products and services.

• High quality job creation is a priority for the years to come. Professional engineers can play an important role in establishing new enterprises, restructuring existing processes and developing new products and services. Emphasis should therefore be placed on developing graduates with the appropriate attributes and quality for this innovative role as well as producing graduates fitted primarily for existing employment. A person who has been instrumental in creating new and valuable jobs should be regarded as having made an important contribution to Canada.

• Engineers are employed in large numbers in the wealth producing and export industries. In the future, as our reliance on our natural resource exports reduces, a larger part of our exports will have to be in the form of manufactured products, industrial processes and services with a high intellectual or value-added content. This will require more engineers particularly in the more highly qualified categories.

• The significant role of engineers in the solution of environmental issues should not be overlooked in assessing the value of engineering education to society. While others may take a lead role in identifying issues and inducing public concern, engineers will play the lead role in developing appropriate solutions.

• Adding emphasis and resources to engineering education may add substantially to the future health and security of our universities. In the past, public support and confidence was influenced by the belief that a university degree would guarantee employment, even if the courses taken were not directly preparatory for a particular job market. Employment opportunity has now become much more dependent on the capacity to produce wealth. Strengthening a wealth and job-producing professional faculty such as engineering is a strategy which can restore and build public confidence in the relevance of the university and its great value to the community.

6.1. - Public Investment in Engineering Education

6.2. - Funding by and for Students