Quality Of Physical Facilities And Human Resources For Engineering Education In Africa.
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Date
2011-09
Authors
Falade, F.
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Abstract
This paper assesses the quality of the facilities and resources for the training of engineers in some countries in Africa. The facilities are classified into internal and external. The internal facilities and resources are those within the training institutions while the external ones are those in the industry for use by the engineering
students during the industrial attachment and after graduation for professional development training that is usually organized by professional body in each country.
The internal facilities include classroom and laboratory spaces, teaching and research equipment, information communication technologies, library and periodicals while the external facilities includes office equipment and design software as well as projects
to work on. In the training institutions and industry, highly skilled and experienced academics and practicing engineers are needed for proper transfer of skill to the prospective engineering graduates but to a large extent they are lacking. The basic
infrastructure (energy and water) is in a poor state especially in the laboratories for the basic sciences as well as in the laboratories and workshops for engineering and technology; the situation is similar in the industry.Each country sets minimum standards
(human and non-human resources) comparable to International Standards for engineering education but in general the minimum standards are hardly met quantitatively and qualitatively in most African Universities. The inadequacies in teaching, laboratory and workshop facilities as well as manpower for capacity building
contribute to the diminution of the quality of engineering graduates in Africa. In order to improve the quality of facilities, the skills and abilities of the engineering personnel in the training institutions and industry, there is need for adequate funding.
Partnership between universities and industry needs to be strengthened with the universities providing the platform for the creation of knowledge and the development of human resources while the industry provides platform for the commercialization of the research outputs.
Description
Conference Paper
Keywords
Physical Facilities , Human Resources
Citation
Falade, F. (2011) Quality Of Physical Facilities And Human Resources For Engineering Education In Africa. Being a Paper Presented At The 1st World Engineering Education Flash Week Lisbon 2011 (WEE 2011), Lisbon, Portugal.