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  • In developing the programme, what we wanted to do was really build a programme that was

  • interesting and engaging, that would really grab students from day one and engage them

  • with the practice of engineering. Engage them with projects, engage them with joint work,

  • engage them with the sort of problem solving which engineers in their professional practice

  • are undertaking.

  • Traditionally what we do is we get students to sit in lecture theatres, either reading their

  • powerpoint notes or copying things down and receiving our wisdom.

  • What we found was that students were becoming disenchanted by the second year, because the

  • first two years, typically, were very theoretical. They were learning lots of abstract theory

  • but no practical engineering. These are people who want to do practical engineering.

  • The best way to do it is to give them the information that they're going to need and

  • then engage with them, interact with them. So we use our class time for what we think

  • class time is useful for - which is engaging with our students.

  • Right from the first day of your first term, you'll be doing something that's quite unique.

  • Something that you don't do in any other course. You'll be put into teams to actually work

  • on practical design solutions. You'll be creative, you'll be using your ingenuity to come up

  • with something that actually addresses a problem.

  • That's what gets them going, that's what they've chosen to come and do a civil engineering

  • degree for. And that turning it around gets them learning the whole of the rest of the engineering

  • in that context. That drives their ability to understand the theory, it drives their

  • ability to understand the practice. That means that we turn out better engineers in the end.

  • The programmes at UCL support the student in a number of ways, through both personal

  • contact with tutors, but also through e-learning and other methods. We've been doing a lot

  • of work recently on video capture and how students can replay the lectures, as well

  • as getting additional material to help them study and to support them through their work

  • at UCL.

  • The thing is, these soft or transferrable skills, whatever you want to call them, not

  • only will they help students when they go out into the job market, but they will also

  • make them better students while they're here. It'll help them to deal better with the technical

  • material that they'll be encountering in their courses.

  • Mathematics is the main toolbox for practising engineers. We want our students to become intuitive

  • mathematics users. They will use mathematics throughout their studies and in the workplace.

  • We've streamlined the number of degrees that we offer, but that doesn't mean we've limited

  • choice. In fact, students can take a minor option which allows them to take a programme

  • that's either in an interdisciplinary topic, or a subject that's in another discipline,

  • such as management or biomedical engineering, which really allows students to follow their

  • desired choices in terms of their degree programme.

  • To me it's not about teaching. Teaching is about how one person imparts information to

  • another. What we're about is learning, which is how I learn to do something I couldn't

  • do before. What we do is we inspire students to learn.

  • We genuinely believe in the power of engineering to change the world, and what we're doing

  • is, we are bringing students who share that vision, and we are actually giving them the

  • skills that will allow them to make that a reality.

In developing the programme, what we wanted to do was really build a programme that was

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