Tensions Between Industry and Academia: Policy Making and Curriculum Development

Abstract

Elsewhere we have discussed the tensions inherent to being an engineer, and argued they are both necessary and constructive. These tensions necessarily impact on the role of the teacher and the role of the students in learning, and therefore, the curriculum. Curriculum mediates between the needs and values of higher education and those of the larger social system including businesses in a capitalist society, which partially funds it and for which it is claimed to serve. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the implications of this view. It is shown with reference to current debates in the US engineering education community that understanding and embracing these tensions has radical implications for the design and understanding of the curriculum.