A model for more relevant and useful Postgraduate Coursework Degrees D.Birtwhistle Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia d.birtwhistle@qut.com Abstract: There is an increasing demand for postgraduate training of electrical power engineers throughout Australia but the education needs to be targeted towards helping students to become skilled at those activities that will add value to employing organisations This paper describes how QUT have a successfully used the competency method to design a flexible postgraduate industry-oriented coursework program for the electricity supply industry Keywords: Postgraduate training of engineers Competency Standards Life-long education INTRODUCTION Currently the Australian electricity supply industry is facing a shortage of qualified electrical engineers and technicians To overcome shortages, many companies are starting to recruit numbers of new graduates after more than a decade of very limited graduate recruitment Shortages of experienced engineers are affecting the capacity of companies to conduct training of their new and existing staff Throughout Australia there is a strong demand for training of electricity supply engineers which is at present largely unfulfilled The lack of relevant training makes redeployment of existing staff more difficult and increases time for new engineering staff to become proficient in new roles Universities have traditionally been seen as one of the main providers of training for professional engineers both at the undergraduate and post-graduation levels It is therefore of interest to examine to how universities are responding to the current industry needs This paper discusses the general situation in Australian universities at present and describes the characteristics of a radically new type of postgraduate program that is aimed at imparting identified professional engineering competencies UNIVERSITIES AND TRAINING IN ELECTRICITY SUPPLY ENGINEERING 2.1 Do universities have the capacity to contribute to practical training of engineers for industry? Australian universities, like the electricity supply industry, have undergone more than a decade of cost cutting Limited recruitment of power engineers by industry has resulted in reduced undergraduate interest in power engineering specialisation and consequently power engineering activity has declined in universities Contributing to this decline has been: non-replacement of retired staff, drift of younger staff to more attractive discipline areas, and lack of funds particularly for laboratories Practical training in real engineering has been particularly badly degraded with reduction in laboratory capacity Some notable closures include: The University of Queensland High Voltage Laboratory; Queensland University of Technology High Current Laboratory; University of Sydney Circuit Interruption Laboratory and the University of South Australia’s Australian Electrical Testing Company At this time not a single Australian university has an electrical power laboratory accredited by the National Association of Testing Laboratories (NATA) University staff generally are recruited on the basis of their research capacity and there is generally no requirement in universities that staff should have experience as engineers even though the greatest part of their job is concerned with the development of engineering practitioners To gain promotion staff have to seek research funding and publish and this seems to result in most staff developing very narrow and deep specializations at the expense of wider knowledge about engineering The lack of laboratory facilities in universities also pushes staff towards research in less applied fields of power engineering In undergraduate courses the amount of traditional power engineering material has been reduced considerably from the levels taught thirty years ago There are many reasons for this cut Firstly, reduced funding has made universities seek economies by reducing parallel streams and cutting elective units Secondly, there has been a fantastic growth in new technologies to which all electrical engineering students need at least a basic exposure: material such as analogue and digital electronics, computer systems, IT and even communications technology are necessary even for engineers in the electricity supply industry Thirdly, as discussed above, many academic staff not have sufficient practical background to teach courses outside their research areas For all these reasons it is unrealistic to expect undergraduate courses to provide training in power engineering at any other than very basic levels The main training contribution by universities therefore needs to be post graduation 2.2 Postgraduate Training by Coursework and Research Many university staff consider postgraduate coursework degrees as opportunities to teach material in which they have developed significant expertise Generally the expertise is acquired by carrying out research rather than through experience as a engineering practitioner There may be therefore a gap between the training needed by the engineer pursuing a career in industry and postgraduate courses developed by university staff In the electricity supply industry this dichotomy is particularly pronounced Engineers in industry are mainly concerned with the operation and management of large quantities of network apparatus On the other hand university academics generally specialise in rather narrow areas where there is a need for fundamental research and innovation Postgraduate courses have therefore often been slanted towards what university academics know, rather than what their customers need to know The assumption that postgraduate course syllabi can be based on university research appears to implicitly be at the heart of the design of many programs This implies a lack of recognition of the very broad nature of professional engineering work and a lack of acceptance that much of the knowledge employed by professional engineers is developed in industry not in universities 2.3 Are traditional course structures meeting needs of customers and providers? Power postgraduate coursework education offered by universities is mostly is squeezed into award course frameworks that require attendance full or part time at the university over a fixed period of time with attendance at classes that are fixed to undergraduate semester-based timetables Award courses still generally require completion in fixed times such as: one semester full-time for a graduate certificate, two-semesters full-time for a graduate diploma and two or three semesters for a masters degree: part-time course often are twice as long in time as full-time programs (Engineers Australia, 2006) The presumption in the design of most university power postgraduate courses appears to be that all postgraduate engineering education can be completed in a few years after the first graduation The assumption that professional engineers can attend, or indeed are interested in attending, weekly units tied to semesters in universities in capital cities lies at the heart of the structure of much of power postgraduate coursework education in Australian universities 2.4 Are universities providing satisfactory life-long learning opportunities for Australian engineers? There appears to be a lack of engagement of Australian universities in the postgraduate education of the bulk of the power engineering workforce Many coursework programs have been sustained by cohorts of predominantly overseas students, leading some observers to the conclusion that Australian engineers are not interested in advancing their education This is belied by the numbers attending expensive seminars and short courses offered by increasing numbers of private providers on engineering topics, and the number of power engineers participating in MBA programs At this time one might observe that the postgraduate education of power engineers in Australian universities appears to have been subsumed by Business Schools: clearly engineers are not generally finding the educational experiences they need in engineering programs in universities ALTERNATIVE POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION TO SUPPPORT INDUSTRY NEEDS 3.1 How can postgraduate coursework be improved? The Institution of Engineers (1992) has led the way in the categorisation of professional engineering skills in generic competency standards These competency standards list the generic skills needed by all engineers The objectives of the IEAust competency standards is stated as being to: Assist in assessing status of prospective members Determine whether members are qualified for professional registration Assist in design of undergraduate and postgraduate engineering courses Provide reference material to help in the derivation of industry-specific competency standards and associated competency based training Help guide professional development and formation 6 Provide a reference for employers in determining job specifications, and appropriate levels of employment The intention is that the IEAust competency standards will help educators of engineering undergraduates to identify the generic competencies needed by engineers Recently many Australian universities have responded to this need by striving to include identified generic competencies in undergraduate syllabi The Institution of Engineers (1992)] also recognise in the fourth point above that there is a need to develop further competency standards for particular industries Such standards are seen as describing the professional skills needed in specific workplaces and as providing a framework that assists the development of “competency-based training” This notion of describing what is done by professions in standards and linking the training to identified competencies in the standards is by no means a novel concept It as it has been used with great advantage by many professions previously including Burg, F.D et al (1984), David, B.M and McDonald, C.(1989), and Ayling, R and Constanzo, M., (1984) There has been little interest generally in competency-based education in engineering Schools in Australian universities apart from work by the author and colleagues in the Queensland Electricity Supply Industry (QESI) who developed Competency Standards in the early ninties The Queensland Electricity Commission QESI competency standards (Queensland Electricity Commission (1996)) were specifically developed for electrical engineers working in the electricity supply industry using functional analysis methodologies These standards give a detailed description of work performed over a range of Key Purpose Statements” ranging from “design generation” to “operate distribution networks” As part of the QESI work new techniques for developing training programs from competency standards were developed (Birtwhistle, D., Guy, M and Wright, P.O (1992)) by searching the standards for phrases relating to given topics and grouping materials Materials were intelligently clustered and resulting syllabi were subjected to several validation cycles by stakeholders to produce a graduate coursework program (Birtwhistle, D (2000)) that was aimed specifically at providing the skills and knowledge needed by engineers working in Transmission and Distribution A unique set of syllabi were produced which drew the focus sharply away from research interests of university staff towards the real needs of industry Many syllabi were concerned with nonspecifically-electrical topics such as risk assessment, finance, project management and contract management Electrical syllabi were mainly concerned with the skills needed in the management of electricity network equipment Important topics have been found to be: safety and earthing, overhead line design, protection scheme design and setting, transformer and circuit breaker selection and monitoring, substation design, condition monitoring and basic network analysis Interestingly many of the skills needed are not coincident with the material taught on the topics in most university courses Generally the skills documented in the course syllabi are profoundly practical and cater to industry needs for education that imparted knowledge to students that would assist them in carrying out value-adding activities in the workplace The author has found that the use of the Competency Standards in the design of course syllabi has produced courses in which engineers working in industry have a keen interest In the QUT electricity supply program this interest has been sustained for over a decade and student numbers are increasing in spite of the fact that courses have been charged at commercial rates since their introduction Whilst syllabi are important there are other key factors in sustaining demand for industry-oriented postgraduate courses and these are: design of attractive course structures and selection of appropriate lecturing staff 3.2 What are user-friendly course structures? Indications of the type of structure attractive to industry can be gleaned from the popularity with industry of short courses available from increasing numbers of private providers often at highlyinflated costs In order to design flexible electricity supply courses the author experimented with programs that are based on very short units (subjects) (Birtwhistle, D (2000)) Courses made up of units with different lengths were considered to be too difficult to administer The approach taken in the Electricity Supply courses Queensland University of Technology (1993) has been to develop a number of very short units each containing a complete topic The units have been interrelated by a loose pre-requisite structure but many units can be taken as isolated short courses by people with some appropriate experience in electricity supply A unit length of 15 contact hours was chosen and units are presented over ½ days Other presentation modes examined have been: presentation of three short-course units in weekly mode over one semester to form a traditional semester-long unit and packaging of short courses as distance units Short course units were immediately popular and continue to be the most popular mode of presentation there currently being about 33 units available in the QUT electricity supply program Semester-long units were reasonably popular initially but many students could not keep up attendance because of work pressures and this mode of presentation was discontinued after years A dozen high-quality distance education units have been developed from short course units These units contain all reference material and in some cases software: they are popular amongst some students in remote locations but it has been found that most students prefer to attend short-courses even after investing in distance education units The advantages of short course units for students appears to be that they can get away from work relatively easily for a few days, they get face-to-face instruction and they have the opportunity for discussion with groups of students who are often engineers from different companies QUT short courses are only offered when industry surveys indicate that there is a sufficient demand Students may complete industry-based assignments on each unit and over several years may complete sufficient credits to gain a university award Completion of 12 units give a Graduate Certificate (Electricity Supply) and 18 units plus an industry-based thesis give a M.Eng.Sc.(Electricity Supply) 3.3 Who are the best presenters for competency-based courses? The question arises as to who are the best presenters for postgraduate courses aimed at imparting professional skills to engineers from industry The special skill of full-time university staff is often in fundamental principles, in assessment and in presentation of material In conducting industry-focused courses it is often desirable to share presentations between university presenters who deal with the more fundamental material and have teaching experience and industry-based practitioners who have the detailed knowledge and experience to teach specified industry competencies This arrangement can also help to build links between the university and industry In the QUT program there are currently about 40 presenters of whom 10 are from the university and the others are from electricity transmission and distribution companies and manufacturers The Queensland transmission company, Powerlink, provide a large number of the presenters and throughout the program have been strong supporters of the initiative QUT provide initial teaching training for presenters and have developed a methodology for transforming course notes to distance format involving a professional editor and instructional designers All students complete a questionnaire after each unit that includes assessment of presenters Parttime presenters consistently score very well and a large number would be in the upper ranges of university teaching ability 3.4 How should we assess competency-based courses? In literature on competency-based training the technique for assessment of whether students have attained the required competencies is assessment of the competencies in the work place by experts in the area with special training in competency assessment In the QUT courses we found that it was not possible with available resources to attempt this even at local level with support from industry partners Examinations were seen as too narrow and not useful in developing and demonstrating competencies We have therefore chosen to make all assessment assignment-based and strongly biased towards solution of tasks carried out in the work place Typical assignments may involve: Carrying out a load flow study Designing a protection scheme Designing an overhead line Analysing results from earth tests Generally assignments are completed in a two-month period after a course Copying is specifically not allowed under a code of conduct, details of which are given to all students in writing although students are able to consult with colleagues 3.5 How can we take a series of short industry-based courses to masters level? As mentioned above it is possible to gain a M.Eng.Sc award at part of the QUT Electricity Supply Program The challenge in designing the masters program was to include a higher level assessment component in the course in which students could demonstrate high intellectual skills and have the opportunity to make their own contribution to knowledge In most coursework masters this is achieved by including a project or small thesis Generally this might be a small part of a research project in which there is an interest by a university supervisor As the Electricity Supply Courses were set up to assist engineers to develop industry competencies we considered that, whilst it was important to incorporate a thesis component, the thesis specifically needed to demonstrate mastery of a topic in professional practice rather than to follow traditional research lines The M.Eng.Sc thesis is therefore based on 100 days supervised professional practice during which time the student carries out a professional role in industry The thesis has to document the work done by the engineer and to show how the activity fits into the broader organization It is expected that candidates will make detailed literature reviews and to document alternatives considered when making decisions: this is often not thoroughly done in industry Candidates are also required to make a critical review of current procedures and if possible to develop their own ideas for improvements with a view to making a contribution to professional practice Theses assessed by two examiners – one from industry ad one internally Examples of theses completed to date include: Development of an asset register Procurement of EHV switching equipment Lightning protection of distribution feeders Improvement of safety of overhead line regulators Many theses have been of a very high standard and have some have been mistaken for M.Eng research theses by examiners in spite of the fact that they constitute only 25% of the credits for a coursework degree Employers have been particularly happy with the format of the theses as they receive detailed documentation about their own workplace practices that is not normally formally recorded elsewhere 3.6 What are the tangible indicators of satisfaction with training courses? There have been many indications of wide satisfaction with the program: some of the indicators of satisfaction include: Regular surveys of course participants indicate high satisfaction levels (Birtwhistle (2000) There has been sustained and greatly increasing demand from all states and overseas Monash university, cooperated in conducting QUT courses in Melbourne One university in Australia has set up a program which is a close copy of the QUT program The Queensland Electricity Supply industry invested $2.0M over five years in a Chair in Electricity Asset Management in 1996 A request from an Asian national power utility for assistance in setting up a similar program KEY FACTORS IN DEVELOPING USEFUL POSTGRADUATE TRAINING 4.1 What is the best way for industry to encourage universities to provide more responsive postgraduate training? The main reasons for the success of the QUT electricity supply postgraduate program described above are considered to be: Relevant course syllabi Flexibility in presentation and assessment Knowledgeable lecturers A sound business relationship between industry and the university training provider If large industries want relevant education and training they need to recognise that they need to work with universities to help determine exactly what training the industry needs It is essential for industry and universities to engage in considerable dialogue during course design Syllabi for the QUT courses are based around competency standards for electrical engineers in the electricity supply industry which took about a year to develop through a university-industry collaboration The total course design took about two years During this time key industry representatives displayed remarkable patience and did a great deal of work in organizing workshops to determine competencies, validating competency standards and draft course outlines with many different stakeholder groups in industry, and helping draft contractual agreements between QUT and the main collaborating companies 4.2 What type of relationships between universities and industry foster successful training schemes in the long-term? At the time when QUT first started talking to the QESI about training courses in the early ninties, the electricity industry was being subjected to many changes and companies were developing ideas about competitive market places and ensuring that identified “value” was obtained for money spent This attitude extended to universities and it was made plain to QUT that any funding from the QESI would have to be earned The initial contract between QUT and the QESI was that QUT would supply 5000 hours of student training at commercial rates over a period of not more than years The contract was prepaid to provide funds to set up the training program but QUT were able to more than double this initial funding through a successful grant application to a Queensland Government education scheme An important part of the initial contract was that, in recognition of QUT’s restricted skills and knowledge about engineering practice, the industry agreed to make materials available for inclusion as lecture content and to release specialist staff to give presentations For the period of the presentations, however, the industry presenters became part-time staff of QUT The initial training contract was fulfilled in 18 moths and thereafter the relationship between the QESI companies and the postgraduate training program has been on a commercial basis in all matters apart from the release of presenters and the availability of industry materials for inclusion in presentations 4.3 Lessons for universities from the program? It is the author’s belief that the considerable success of the QUT program has been due to the spirit and to the content of the initial contract The industry wanted to help the program succeed because they needed a regular program of targeted training and did not consider in-house training as part of their core business QUT needed funds and was prepared to work closely with industry to provide what industry needed in return for funding QUT like any other provider with a good product has attempted to increase earned income by expanding its range of services throughout Australia The focus on earning income is important at a time when there has been interesting evidence in the Lambert Review (2003) to show that new universities that have managed to pull themselves quickly into higher levels have done so by devising new ways of “earning” additional income from activities relevant to their communities In Australia the mission statements of many universities indicate that an important part of the universities mission is to facilitate “life long learning” for their constituents In spite of this the core interest of many Engineering Schools in Australian universities remains teaching of undergraduate courses and postgraduate research The former activity is completed by most students before they reach the age of 25 and research degree study which is undertaken by a small minority of students is usually completed by students before they reach the age of 30 The fact that students need training and retraining over their whole lifetimes as professional engineers tends to be most respects overlooked - hence the drift by engineers to business programs The new Professional Doctorate qualification, in which students meld together workplace learning with vocational research in the years during which they are maturing as professionals, has found little support in Engineering Schools in Australia with only one university (Deakin) offering this alternative road to the doctorial qualification This contrasts with many other professional groups who have widely adopted the new qualification thereby providing a pathway for practitioners to obtain a doctoral qualification through excellent practice CONCLUSIONS QUT Electricity Supply Program presents a useful model in that it has grown and indeed thrived at a time when most other electric power postgraduate courses in universities in Australia have declined In the author’s opinion the main reason for the success of the QUT program has been that from its initiation it has been totally financially dependent on course income The program was the first totally-externally supported postgraduate program in Australia in engineering Many of the initiatives described above were developed with a view to providing education for which industry would be prepared to pay fees The continuing need for income resulted in courses being designed that were useful to industry and whilst this can be maintained it is likely that the courses will continue to be popular In summary a new type of postgraduate coursework program has been developed in which syllabi are based on competency standards The course has proven to be very popular with industry and has thrived in a difficult period for power engineering in universities 6 REFERENCES Ayling, R and Constanzo, M., (1984) Towards a Model of Education for Competent Practice, Journal of Professional Legal Education, Vol.2 (1) Birtwhistle, D., Guy M., and Wright, P.O (1992) A Competency-Based Post-Graduation Training Program in Electrical Power Engineering, Proceedings of the Fourth AAEE Conference on Engineering Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 13-16 December, 1992, pp 47-53 Birtwhistle, D (2000), New Paradigms in the postgraduate education of engineers, Transactions of MultiDisciplinary Engineering – Policy Issues, The Institution of Engineers, Australia, Vol GE424, pp 55-66, Burg, F.D., Lloyd, J.S and Templeton, B., (1984) Competence in Medicine, Medical Teacher, Vol (2) David, B.M and McDonald, C., (1989 ) A Competency-based Education Program for the Training of Pre-registration Graduates in WA, The Australian Journal of Pharmacy, Vol 70, Oct., pp 850-853 Engineers Australia (2006), EEA Handbook of University and TAFE Courses Institution of Engineers (1992), Australia, National Generic Competency Standards Stage 2, http://www.ieaust.org.au/library/publications/NGCS.pdf Queensland Electricity Commission, South East Queensland Electricity Board and Queensland University of Technology (1996) Competency Standards in Engineering for the Electricity Supply Industry and IndustrySpecific Courses Designed by QUT to Support Competency Standards QUT Brisbane Queensland University of Technology (1993), Course Submission for Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Master of Engineering Science (Electricity Supply), Brisbane Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration (2003), Final Report, HM Treasury, London, http://www.lambertreview.org.uk