QUALIFICATION OF ENGINEERS

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26856, 8 October 1952, Page 11

QUALIFICATION OF ENGINEERS

university course favoured REPORT BY NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE (New Zealand Press Association) ah « Wellington, October 7. h-..£ a Professional engineers should l i m *Y ers lJ y «ducation, in the th ® l l ew Zeal »nd Institute °£.^ Eng 2? ee r 8, . After recent detailed study the institute resolved that this ?£ lncl Pl®. be fostered as soon P ra 5 tlcabl «’ 80 that ultimately all proiessional engineers. including mechanical engineers, should qualify * > 3 r _J n€ans of a university degree in engineering. Engineering science had grown so complex, and the qualifying examinations, regardless of who set them, so much more difficult that the student had very little chance of making the grade unless he could spend several years in full-time study under tuition at a level obtainable only in a university. said the institute. *lt is a simple truth, eVen if unpalatable to. some, that as examining bodies the institutes are on the way OU V’ said. “The economic needs of the country demand an adequate supply of first-class engineers, and if the various grades are not educated properly the country will suffer.” The institute, with some important reservations, adopted the report of the consultative committee on education, training, and supply of professional engineers in New Zealand, published tn 194®. After discussion with the Director of Education (Mr C. E. Seeby) the institute went ahead with a wider examination of the position and the recent plan is the result. It is opposed to the establishment of diploma courses in technical colleges for the education of professional engineers. It has outlined a plan for engineering education in New Zealand, which involves training of three different groups—the artisan and middle groups by technical college part-time training, and the professional group by full-time training at university engineering schools. The Institute said that it was building the foundations of a structure fot the education of those men who would be in positions of responsibility in 10, 20, 30, and 40 years from now. The critical shortage in the engineering industry, and the retarded position of engineering education made it essen-, tial that early and strenuous action be taken to improve engineering educational facilities, it said.