Highlights

• 
  ECCE-7 / CHISA 2010
  Prague, Czech Republic
  2010-08-28 - 2010-09-01
• 
  8th European Congress of Chemical Engineering
  (ECCE-8)
  Berlin, Germany
  2011-09-25 - 2011-09-29

EFCE Bologna Recommendations

EFCE Recommendations for Chemical Engineering Education in a
Bologna Two Cycle Degree System

Final Draft EFCE WP on Education, April 2005
Recommendations of EFCE WP chairmen considered, May 2005
Approved by EFCE Executive Board, July 2005

Foreword by the EFCE Scientific Vice-President

Introduction

As Europe is implementing the Bologna two cycle degree system the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) believes it would be useful to formulate recommendations for a chemical engineering education in a Bologna type study organization. EFCE has earlier, in 2003, published a statement supporting the goals of the Bologna process [1] .

According to the 2001 and 2003 communiqués of the Conferences of the Ministers responsible for Higher Education, “first and second cycle degrees should have different orientations and various profiles in order to accommodate a diversity of individual, academic and labour market needs”. This is a view shared by the EFCE, and has been established practice among the higher education institutions offering a chemical engineering education. Nevertheless, there are certain methods and techniques common to all chemical engineering. EFCE feels that particularly the first level study must give enough emphasis on what is the common chemical engineering core, which in brief is the technology of modifying, separating, and reacting materials and substances.

These recommendations cover

• Learning outcomes
  -   general chemical engineering skills and knowledge
  -   transferable skills
• Achieving the learning outcomes
  -   Core curriculum
  -   Teaching and learning
  -   Industrial experience
  -   Review of the educational process
  -   Student assessment

The learning outcomes are formulated in a general way, to emphasize what should be common to chemical engineering education. The core curriculum proposed here with additional appropriate topics in science, in chemical and other engineering, and in non-technical areas will give a variety of concrete contents to the general outcomes. Thus, different chemical engineers will be able to handle the demands of different industries and tasks: e.g. oil refining, bulk and fine chemicals, paper, polymers, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, environmental issues. Particularly second level graduates will be able to perform research tasks and go on to doctoral studies.

A large percentage of chemical engineers are now engaged in making various specialty products (formulated products), and relatively fewer in making traditional commodity chemicals. While all chemical engineers still need much of the traditional chemical engineering skills, the EFCE feels there is now a need to include some knowledge of “product engineering” in the common core in order to reflect the increasing importance of modern materials science.

Common general outcomes and a common core curriculum will also facilitate one of the goals of the Bologna process: More and simpler exchange in Europe both during and after the studies.

The core curriculum proposed here covers only approx. two thirds of a first and a second level degree study leaving the higher education institutions freedom for innovative concepts in developing their study programmes further.

Learning outcomes

In line with recommendations/requirements from other bodies (including accreditation bodies), EFCE has formulated its recommendations first and foremost as outcomes, i.e. what the students should know or be able to do right after graduation.

First cycle degree chemical engineering outcomes

After graduation, a first level degree chemical engineer should

1. have a knowledge of relevant basic sciences (mathematics, chemistry, molecular biology, physics) to help understand, describe and deal with chemical engineering phenomena
2. understand the basic principles underlying chemical engineering:
        a. material, energy, momentum balances
        b. equilibrium
        c. rate processes (chemical reaction, mass, heat, momentum transfer)
   and be able to use them to set up and to solve (analytically, numerically, graphically) a variety of chemical engineering problems
3. understand the main concepts of process control
4. understand the principles underlying methods of process/product measurements
5. be able to plan, perform, explain and report simple experiments
6. have a knowledge of relevant literature and data sources
7. have a basic understanding of health, safety, and environmental issues
8. understand the concept of sustainability
9. understand basic concepts of chemical product engineering
10. have knowledge of some practical applications of process and product engineering
11. have an ability to analyse complex problems in the chosen orientation
12. have some experience in using appropriate software
13. be able to perform appropriate design in the chosen orientation
14. be able to calculate process and project costs

Second cycle degree chemical engineering outcomes

A second cycle degree study will be characterized by greater differentiation both between institutions and between students. Thus, the objective is even less based upon specific common knowledge but instead on common methods to set up and to solve various problems.

After graduation a second level degree chemical engineer should

1. be more proficient in the first level competencies in the chosen orientation
2. use deeper knowledge of the underlying phenomena to build more advanced models
3. be able to use appropriate computational tools
4. be able to perform more advanced experiments and to give more advanced interpretations of the results
5. be able to analyse, evaluate and compare relevant alternatives in the chosen orientation
6. be able to synthesize and optimize novel solutions
7. be able to self-study a topic in depth

EFCE expects the final outcomes of a second cycle degree programme to be (at least) equivalent to those of traditional long-cycle (4,5 – 5 years) programmes.

Transferable skills

An engineering education should give the engineer a number of transferable skills, which are more or less independent of the type of engineering. These skills are not specific to the core or to the degree level, but will be acquired to some extent in the first level study and will be deepened in the second. Such skills have been formulated in many ways; EFCE has chosen the formulation given by the US accreditation body ABET with some minor modifications:

After graduation, an engineer should

1. be able to communicate effectively, including in English, using modern presentation tools as appropriate
2. be able to work in multidisciplinary teams
3. have an understanding of the impact of engineering solutions in an environmental and societal context
4. have an understanding of professional end ethical responsibility
5. be able to learn on his/her own, and have a recognition of the need for life-long learning

Achieving the learning outcomes

Core curriculum

To ensure the proper common content and proper levels of the different first and second cycle degrees, EFCE recommends minimum amounts of subjects (e.g. mathematics) for both cycles and in addition topics (e.g. reaction engineering) for the first cycle. These minimum amounts are called the core curriculum. While the first cycle core curriculum is both specific and extensive, there is still much of the total study left to give variations in orientation. For the second cycle the recommendations are very general, making it easy to give a broad range of different orientations within and between institutions while meeting the general outcomes.

There is no exact correspondence between the learning outcomes and the core curriculum. The outcomes can only be reached through the combined effect of the core curriculum and the additional courses in each cycle.

Note that the curriculum recommendation lists topics. EFCE makes no recommendation on the number of courses that should be given, or on how topics should be grouped in courses. Furthermore, in practice many of the listed topics will be part of larger courses containing more than just the core.

As the common European credit unit is the ECTU (European Credit Transfer Unit) of which there are 60 per year, all recommendations here are given using ECTU. EFCE has chosen a 3 + 2 years two cycle scheme as an example. For other schemes the figures have to be adapted accordingly.

First cycle degree core curriculum

Typically, a first cycle study will contain 20-30 % science courses, 40-50 % engineering courses, and up to 10% non-technical topics. The core recommended here gives a science content of 25 %, an engineering content of 36 %, and a non-technical content of 6 % of the total study (180 ECTU), leaving one third to deeper coverage of some of these topics and to other topics.

Second cycle degree core curriculum

Although no topics are specified here, it is clear from the recommended learning outcomes that central chemical engineering topics such as transport phenomena, chemical reaction engineering, dynamic modelling as well as general topics such as statistics/optimization/parameter estimation must be included to the extent they have not already been covered in the first cycle study.
 

The core curriculum makes up 63 % of the total study (120 ECTU), leaving approx. three quarters of a study year for additional specialization and broadening.

Teaching and learning

Irrespective of the degree structure, the teaching and learning methods must be appropriate for the topic in question, and be chosen so that the learning outcomes can be achieved. The teaching and learning methods should also help develop students’ skill to work both independently and in teams. Thus, to learn to function in teams, group work is necessary. To be able to communicate, communication tasks must be given and solved. To learn to learn and to take responsibility for their own learning, students must be given appropriate self-study and problem solving tasks during their study. To understand ethical, societal, environmental and professional issues, suitable examples for illustration or discussion must be included. The study should be organized to ensure that students work during all of the semester, and are able to make the relevant connections between the different subjects.

All courses should as far as possible give examples from several areas, to show the broad applicability of chemical engineering methods.

Industrial experience

Industry has an important role to play in the education of chemical engineers. Industrial experience serves to illustrate the applications and limitations of theory, helps to set the courses in a wider context and motivates for the remaining study. In addition, it provides social skills for later leadership roles. Industrial experience for all can only be obtained if industry accepts the responsibility of providing sufficient placements.

Review of the educational process

Each educational institution should have an ongoing review of the educational process, to ensure that the parts are up to date and properly coordinated, and that each and every part contributes towards the aims of the course, and in general to improve the educational outcomes.

Student assessment

EFCE would like to emphasize the need for appropriate feed-back to maximise the learning effect of the assessments.