Student reflection on engineering responsibility exemplified in a professional code of conduct

Abstract

CONTEXT South African engineering graduates are required to demonstrate the acquisition of eleven graduate attributes set by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA, 2020). One of these, graduate attribute 10, relates to Engineering Professionalism, where students are required to demonstrate “critical awareness of the need to act professionally and ethically and to exercise judgment and take responsibility within own limits of competence”. Students are required to provide evidence of their understanding of engineering professionalism in terms of the ECSA Code of Conduct, which regulates the conduct of registered engineers in South Africa. PURPOSE OR GOAL This research investigates student understanding of their engineering responsibility as is evidenced in a formative assignment set as part of the fourth-year civil engineering course at the University of Cape Town. This recognises student learning around professional engineering responsibility to be a significant area of engineering education and research. The research thus aims to investigate student understanding of the professional code as exemplified in their comments analysing the ECSA Code of Conduct. METHODOLOGY This research will examine student assignments submitted as formative assessment of student understanding relating to ethics and professionalism relating to their professional code. This data was analysed by using the software NVivo, grouping comments in terms of different categories relating to: • the specific item number of the code, • reasons provided to justify the significance of the item in terms of personal, professional or public interest, • areas which students flag as difficult to understand and • areas where the students provide alternative formulations or suggest changes. This data was consolidated to provide evidence of student learning relating to their professional responsibility in terms of a particular Code of Conduct. ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES This research is anticipated to provide insight as regards how students interpret the professional Code relating to personal priorities, professional considerations and/or responsibility to the public. The research also aims to demonstrate the value of the student voice in developing understanding of professional responsibility. This is seen to provide support for including student perspectives alongside expert and experienced perspectives engaging critically and constructively with how regulatory documents communicate to both inspire and regulate engineering professionals. CONCLUSIONS Providing evidence of student understanding relating to a specific code of conduct provides a new perspective on a key document for professional engineers in the context of South Africa.