New challenging approaches to engineering

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European Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 32, No. 2, May 2007, 167–179

New challenging approaches to engineering education: enhancing university–industry co-operation KATI KORHONEN-YRJÄNHEIKKI†, TAINA TUKIAINEN‡ and MINNA TAKALA*§ †The Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers TEK, Ratavartijankatu 2, 00520 Helsinki, Finland ‡Institute of Industrial Management, Helsinki Polytechnic, Stadia Bulevardi 31, 00180 Helsinki, Finland §Nokia Corporation, Keilalahdentie 4, 02150 Espoo, Finland (Received 15 May 2006; in final form 4 September 2006) Globalization, accelerated time-based competition, qualitative dynamics, rapid development of technology and especially Information and Communications Technology (ICT) developments challenge engineering education and capability development of each engineer. The success and the competitiveness of companies are increasingly based on their employees. Thus, the question becomes: what kind of future engineering education should be, and should it be radically different than today? Seeking viable and rapid answers to this question poses serious challenges to current educational systems. This paper describes two on-going projects: development of Finnish engineering education policy and development of Industrial Management programs together with ICT-industry. These projects aimed at restructuring engineering education in Finland. Both projects are unique in emphasizing the importance of crossing organizational borders within and outside of traditional engineering education system. The paper also introduces recent initiatives of global ICT industry (IBM, Cisco, Nokia and Apple) that challenge the traditional practices and content of engineering education. Experiences from examples confirm that a dynamic and interactive approach is essential for the success of future engineering education. Keywords: Engineering education; Stakeholders; University–industry co-operation; Interdisciplinarity; Curricula design; Innovation; Industrial management

1.

Introduction

The Information Society is a learning society where the core is networking and creativity (Castells 1996, Castells and Himanen 2002). First, the Information Society and networking can be characterized by rapid development of the information and communication technology (ICT) (Castells and Himanen 2002, Himanen 2004). Second, the development of ICT still continues and the main focus changes to the new applications that utilize ICT effectively. In that way, the change becomes broader, changing the way of living and working in the whole society. Globalization, accelerated time-based competition, qualitative dynamics, rapid development of technology and especially ICT developments are bringing significant change to society, *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

European Journal of Engineering Education ISSN 0304-3797 print/ISSN 1469-5898 online © 2007 SEFI http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/03043790601118697

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business and organizational structures and our ways of working and learning (see e.g. Ackoff 1999 and Senge et al. 2005). The key question is how we create that kind of learning society, in which there is widespread love of learning, in which large numbers of people continue the learning process long after formal education, in which they raise questions and use encyclopedias, read books, form discussion groups, question authority, are active, and in which formal education is seen just as part of a much larger learning process (Boulding 1998, Ackoff 2002). The aim of this research paper is to discuss on the development of the engineering education in the 21st century focusing on the university–industry collaboration in the development of the engineering education.

2.

Innovativeness and university–industry co-operation

The key question is what is the core of engineering education, and is there a need to change the core because of the changing environment? Diversification of the engineering profession implies that the engineering curriculum needs to be individualized. Possibilities for individual choices in the curriculum need to be increased in engineering programs. An engineering student may decide whether to choose a multidisciplinary and wide engineering education or a very deep disciplinary-specific engineering education aiming at research education and career. The multidimensional engineering profession can be seen as an opportunity to combine technological and social intelligence (Layton 1986 in Michelsen 1999, p. 222; Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2004). See figure 1. The learning environment in engineering education is not limited to the university. Practical industrial experience has in Finland always been an integral part of engineering education. In Finland the co-operation between universities and industry is resulting in well-functioning knowledge-transfer to be among the best in the world (IMD 2004). The close co-operation between universities and industry is part of engineering education tradition in Finland and one of the fundamental strengths of the Finnish engineering education (Korhonen 1997, Allt 2002, Keso 2003, Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2004, Naukkarinen 2004). The co-operation in education seems to function well concerning the practical training of engineering students. Finnish engineering students have on average 23 months of working experience, when they finish the Master’s program (TEK 2004). Universities are using visiting lecturers from industry, and in some courses project topics are rising from real development needs from industry. However, staff exchange between university and industry is not so frequent, as would be desirable (Korhonen 1997, p. 74). For the Finnish universities offering engineering education this means a need to attract more foreign staff and students. In particular, Master’s programs are also designed to attract foreign students (Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2004, Michelsen 2004). In Finland in 2004 there were a total of 37,969 undergraduate and

Figure 1. The development of engineering profession in Finland and the nature of power attached to the profession (Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2005).

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postgraduate engineering students at research-oriented universities. Only 1212 of them were foreign, which is 3% of all students (Finnish Ministry of Education KOTA database).

3. Trends and their impact on engineering education system: case Finland 3.1

Methodology

One of the authors of this paper carried out an Argument Delphi panel consisting of 21 key decision-makers on he Finnish engineering education aiming to use the empirical research results in order to frame a futures map on the Finnish engineering up to the year 2015 (Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2005). The Argument Delphi panel was carried out in the engineering education anticipation and development project FuturEng (www.tek.fi/futureng) during 2000–2004 at the Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers TEK. The FuturEng project consisted of several engineering education-related sub-projects. The objectives of the project were to anticipate the development of the societal and business environment of the Finnish engineering education and its impact on education, to anticipate future development of Finnish engineering education and to make concrete action proposals in order to develop Finnish engineering education to face the challenges of the global knowledgebased society during the coming 10–15 years. FuturEng is a good example of an initiative where stakeholders of engineering education join forces in order to benefit the whole engineering education community in Finland. During 2006–2008, the stakeholder co-operation continues with a national strategy project on the Finnish engineering education system. The primary stakeholders are those who have direct economic and/or legal stake in the issue, in this case the Finnish engineering education system. Participants represented the following stakeholders: rectors of universities and polytechnics, industry leaders, Parliamentarists and top-level civil servants in the Finnish ministry of education and leaders of research organizations. The first round of the Argument Delphi was conducted by interviews (Kuusi 1999, 2003). Interviews lasted for 1.5–2.5 hours and were divided in two parts “Finland year 2015” and “Finnish engineering education year 2015”. The second round was a questionnaire, in two parts like the interview. The engineering education system was discussed as a whole, meaning both education in universities and polytechnics (referred in some countries as application-oriented universities). Part one of the questionnaire in the second round consisted of arguments, wild cards and scenarios on Finland year 2015. The panel assessed four scenarios on Finland year 2015, miniscenarios on higher education volume and funding, funding of R&D, image and appreciation of technology, as well as sectorial technology scenarios. Part two of the questionnaire in the second round consisted of 97 arguments divided in 10 parts: educational system, degree system and student selection, regional offering and profile building, the EU and international competitiveness, educational planning and development, number of students, content of studies, learning environment, continuing education and lifelong learning, administration, funding and steering system and stakeholders. Moreover, panelists assessed four scenarios on the Finnish engineering education system structure. 3.2

The societal and business environment of the Finnish engineering education

The Delphi panel had a shared vision on the future of Finland: The competitiveness of Finland is based on the widely networked top-quality higher education and research, where technological

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excellence plays a key role. The strength of Finland is the ability to combine welfare state and information society. The cornerstones of the Finnish society are good quality and high level of general education that is available to all Finns not depending on wealth but talent. Tertiary level education is available to 60–70% of each age group. The Delphi panel was of the opinion that learning industry offers in the future a lot of opportunities and that legislation needs to be changed so that universities are able to offer degree-oriented programs with studying fees. However, at the same time the panelists saw it important that higher education is also in the future for students either free of charge or almost free of charge, meaning that fees are compensated with some kind of voucher system or other new study allowance system. The most desirable scenario of the Finnish society according to the Delphi panel is “Learning society and global welfare” with the core items balance between individuality and community, emergence of spiritual values alongside material things, plurality, global welfare and social innovations utilizing technology. However, the most probable scenario seems to be “A global knowledge-based society of materialistic values”: individuality and seeking one’s own identity emphasized, materialistic values rule, global and local aspects compete, information networks are highly important to social interaction and the urbanization is heavy. Scenarios “Slowing down the development of the knowledge-based society” and “Chaos, terrorism and environmental catastrophes” are seen to be improbable and undesirable. The 15 key societal trends identified by the decision-makers of the Finnish engineering education in the Delphi panel affecting on the engineering education were as follows. 1. The globalization goes further: sharpening of global competition, and division of economic activity. Transnational global decision-making systems emerge. 2. Aging population and settlement concentrates in Helsinki metropolitan area and regional centers. 3. The importance of science and technology in the society increases. 4. Multidisciplinarity between technologies and other fields of science – also humanities – is a key source for new innovations. 5. The networking of people and business increases. Information and communication technology is a tool that integrates to all sectors. 6. Network economy has brought new services and ways of doing business. Operating under big brands has become more common. 7. Expertise-intensive services have proved a central business branch. 8. Learning industry provides business opportunities. 9. Because of increasing dependence on ICT, the vulnerability of infrastructure has increased. ICT security technology has a lot of business opportunities. 10. Development of energy technology provides remarkable business opportunities. 11. Importance of environmental technology has grown considerably. 12. Well-being and health technology provides remarkable business opportunities. 13. There is a lot of potential in biotechnology, but there are a lot of uncertainty factors as well. Engineering sciences play a remarkable role in the development of biotechnology. 14. Nanotechnology has proved a promising technology sector. 15. Materials technology has proved a promising technology sector. Representatives of the decision-makers on the Finnish engineering education are of the opinion that engineering education and research plays an important role in the development of (Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2004). Finnish decision-makers on engineering education (KorhonenYrjänheikki 2004) believe that interdisciplinarity between the fields of technology and other

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disciplines as well as interdisciplinarity within the technology will increase significantly in education as well as in research by the year 2015. 3.3

Key trends of the Finnish engineering education and some factors of uncertainty

The 15 key trends of the Finnish engineering education according to the Delphi panel are: 1. Of all academic fields, deepening globalization has an impact especially on the labor market of engineering professionals and engineering education. This is because engineers are mainly employed by the private sector (in Finland 80%). 2. Sharpening competition in the global educational market together with the fast-spread e-learning forces universities and polytechnics to specialize and increase networking. 3. The division of engineering education into small units is a probable threat scenario. 4. The structures of education in the European Union are harmonized and comparability of degrees is increased: a Bachelor of Engineering degree obtained at a polytechnic will be comparable to a Bachelor of Science in technology obtained at a university and the Licentiate of Science in technology degree will disappear. 5. Despite increasing harmonization of educational structures and comparability of degrees the authority to decide on educational politics remains on national and institutional (university/polytechnics) level. 6. Competition on engineering students sharpens. 7. Universities and polytechnics get more and new responsibilities in anticipation of education, quality assurance and follow-up and feedback systems. 8. Universities and polytechnics’co-operation with stakeholders intensifies substantially and there are more co-operation partners. 9. The value of expertise—no matter how it is obtained—is increased at the expense of the value of degrees. From the viewpoint of appreciation, it becomes more important in which university or polytechnics the degree has been taken. 10. The intakes for Bachelor and Master education in engineering will not rise. 11. The number of PhD students in engineering will increase. 15–20% of engineers with the Master’s degree will later accomplish the PhD degree. In general the need for continuing education of engineers will rise remarkably. 12. Poor appreciation of teaching and scarcity of women in engineering are remarkable problems. The study counseling system will be improved. 13. Engineering studies are closely connected with working life. Sandwich studying† is common in engineering. 14. Multi- and interdisciplinarity between different technologies and other scientific fields increases. 15. The flexibility in engineering studies increases. Curriculum offers more opportunities for individual choices and ways of learning. The Delphi panel sees it desirable that in the future there will be also private universities offering engineering education in Finland. The reasoning presented for private universities is that private universities could offer new standard for the quality of teaching, globalized Finnish companies need private universities and that they are faster in meeting labor market demand. However, the probability of private universities offering engineering education to enter the market is somewhat unclear. The majority of Rectors of Universities and Polytechnics as well as industrial leaders think that it is probable, whereas the opinions of political decision-makers and leaders of research organizations split up. † Working

and studying simultaneously.

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4. The project-based curriculum in industrial management at Helsinki Polytechnic As described above, there is a need to change engineering education in Finland. The globalization and sharpening competition of the ICT industry need to have effect on engineering curriculum and how the programs are executed. We use here as an example the projectbased Master’s program curriculum development for business-to-business (B2B) service management at Helsinki Polytechnic. The role of service management has become more important for companies and societies. The success and the competitiveness of companies are increasingly based on their employees and new skills to address business and technology in service business environment. This has created a challenge for current engineering and management education transformation. Service management challenges both educational institution and business to create new multidisciplinary curricula. This paper describes current results of a new Master’s degree program focusing on service management at the Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, which is designed and implemented in active collaboration with practitioners. The curriculum structures, themes, selection process, student profiles, and selected pedagogic approach activity based learning is discussed in detail in this paper. Contribution of practitioners has made the program successful.

4.1 Master program for service management The Institute of Industrial Management at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia has a radically different approach to engineering and management education. Since the early 1990s the education model has been developed around real-life development projects carried out in collaboration with industry. Students learn real business issues and contemporary solutions as a part of the project work. The themes and contents of the projects are selected, formulated and coordinated to meet the competence requirements of ICT industry. The paradigm fosters learning of practical social skills like networking, project management, collaboration, team working and responsibility, which are relevant in a global, dynamic environment. Experiences gained in industry–university collaboration among Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, high technology firms and High-Technology Association of Finland in bachelor education level has been successful. Initial planning for a Master’s-level program started with the Advisory Board of the Institute in 2005. The several members of the Advisory Board raised up a need for a Master’s program focusing on service business management. In the end of 2005 decision was made to start a new kind of program: a Master’s degree in Industrial Management focusing in international telecom and service business management. The program aims at developing competencies for international business management in ICT industry. The program is conducted in English. Due to the flexibility of the program the studies can be carried out along with regular work. It is a one-year program with 60 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits for Bachelor’s of Engineering, which have a four-year program before 240 ECTS and couple of years’ working experience. There is no tuition for participants since the program is funded by Finnish national education system.

4.2 Pedagogic approach The program uses Total Project Learning (TPL) as the pedagogic approach. This means that studies are integrated into real business and projects are carried out in teams. The TPL method incorporates real-life learning projects (often with the students’ employers), combined

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with a class schedule accommodating near-full-time work, which is innovative for graduate education. The program content is delivered mainly by project work, which is supported with lectures, selected readings, examples from industry, group work, and special workshop sessions. Virtual learning environment with applied wiki pages and blogs provides possibility for co-creation and peer-to-peer sharing during the program. Participants are encouraged to suggest topics for project work and act as real customers for project work. Some project work will be carried out with School of Management in New Jersey Institute of Technology. Faculty is multidisciplinary from several institutions and practitioners with many years of practical experience and PhD degrees. The participants’ own experience in business world will be actively used during the program. Continuous feedback, evaluation and reflection are conducted together with participants. Coaching and mentoring provide the possibility of developing leadership skills during the program. 4.3

Selection process and students

The first group of students will start in September 2006. The application process was organized during spring 2006. The initial selection criteria were the following: a BSc Tech/Eng Degree in Industrial Engineering and Management, work experience of at least three years and excellent conduct in English. The new program attracted applicants with both commercial and technical interests. Most of the applicants are working in large enterprises. Also some entrepreneurs were seeking admittance. There were 115 applicants from 20 countries. Based on pre-selection by application documents 84 candidates were invited to exams and interviews in May 2006. Thirty candidates were accepted to the program and are expected to start their studies in September 2006. 4.4

Systematic practitioner participation

Systematic and active co-operation with practitioners in the different phases of program creation and implementation is very important for the program. The Advisory Board initiated the program, the curriculum was conducted in active co-operation with practitioners and part of the teaching faculty comes from the business world. The participants of the program work in the business world, and the project topics during the program are based on contemporary issues and challenges in reality. The program is concluded with a thesis project, which is also looking solutions for challenging yet practical problems. Close co-operation with companies has long traditions in engineering education in Finland. This dimension has been emphasized in the program design. 4.5

Program curriculum and themes

The high-level program curriculum is described in figure 2. The curriculum covers both business management and technical aspects related to services. The structure of the program curriculum is flexible, and it provides the possibility for participants to focus in different service areas based on their own interests and their future career aspirations. The program consists of several themes. The main themes related to services are the following: • Principles: business in a services economy, and business research methods.

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Figure 2. The high-level program curriculum.

• • • • •

Customers, business models and innovation. Services in an international context. Service leadership, organizational development and teamwork. Service delivery and technology architectures. Strategic management, intra /entrepreneurship, alliances and venturing.

4.5.1 Principles: business in a services economy, and business research methods. Advanced societies globally have shifted from industrial, product-oriented economies to become services economies. Managing service-based businesses requires a different mindset and perspective than managing product-based businesses. This shift represents the primary motivation and foundation for an integrated curriculum on service business management. In support of a TPL approach, program research methods (e.g. action research) are established as ways for managers to support fact-based decision-making and strategies. 4.5.2 Customers, business models and innovation. The management of a services business should have intensive focus on customer requirements and needs. Active listening and development of offerings and/or customer responses are important in both businessto-consumer and business-to-business relationships. The relevance of the services business to customers is maintained through business model and operational innovation. Scalability, reuse and efficiency may be continuously improved by monitoring and innovating business processes. 4.5.3 Services in an international context. The dawn of the 21st century has been characterized by the rise of globalization, and the struggles of businesses in advanced societies having to compete with businesses in emerging economies. Globalization is, however, a result of blending business styles from a variety of cultures. While the culture within a service business is not necessarily bound to geographic region, common business practices often have foundations in local predispositions. One way to deepen an understanding of varying philosophies on services is to focus on cases where a business supports its local and/or regional society well. These discussions are paired with concepts complementary to the prevailing business practices.

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4.5.4 Service leadership, organizational development and teamwork. Although many organizational and leadership skills from managing product-oriented businesses are transferable, the impact of services businesses as people businesses is more immediate. A wide range of behaviors—from sharing expertise across knowledge professionals, to encouraging empathy on customer-facing roles—can be coached and influenced by managers. In addition, service workers may be encouraged to be self-organized, increasing productivity through the exchange of experiences and/or contributions to organizational learning. 4.5.5 Service delivery and technology architectures. Maintaining consistent and highquality service delivery requires establishing standards for performance. These are enabled by information and communications technologies, which themselves continue to advance. The persistent delivery of excellence in service and high customer satisfaction requires establishing procedures and infrastructure that enable and improve productivity. 4.5.6 Strategic management, intra/entrepreneurship, alliances and venturing. Service businesses may not directly follow the economies of scale common in industrial businesses. Modularity and interdependence in cooperative arrangements may provide better service to end-customers, as well as higher profitability to services organizations. Service providers may establish relationships with peers, with upstream and/or downstream partners, with universities, and/or with governmental agencies. These may enable greater immediate or future competitiveness for an independent service business, or an ecosystem of complementary service providers. 4.6

Summary of Master’s program for service management development

The service management Master’s program at the Institute of Industrial Management in Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia is renewing service management education curricula and pedagogic approach by cooperating with practitioners systematically and intensively. The program provides an exciting opportunity for developing a new kind of service management curricula and for renewing the engineering and management education to meet the challenges of the ICT industry. The program provides practical framework to develop service management education internationally.

5.

Initiatives from the industry to the engineering education development

Industrial companies have been actively influencing into transformation of engineering education. Already during 1940–1960 IBM was challenging universities to establish computer science departments. Around the year 2000, IBM was inviting university professors to collaborate in e-commerce curricula development. At first they developed a training program for their own employees and later the content was transferred to universities and clients as well. With IBM Global Services being the largest IT services organization in the world, IBM has taken the lead in recognizing that college graduates need new skills to address business and technical issues in a service business environment During the past two years IBM has been actively inviting universities around the world to participate in the development of service sciences. This multidisciplinary application area requires a combination of scientific, management, and engineering disciplines. Service innovation often requires an integration of technology, business, organizational–social, and demand innovations. The collaboration

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is elementary important in service delivery as well. IBM has invested well over $1 million in faculty and university awards to service innovation pioneers over the last two years. Many universities around the world are developing new services-oriented courses and curricula; others are expanding their existing focus on services. However, a significant effort is still needed to develop a truly cross-disciplinary approach to SSME. In October 2006 IBM is hosting a conference on Services Sciences, Management and Engineering (SSME) – Education for the 21st Century. It will be very interesting to follow how education of service science will evolve in the following years. This time the development might be accelerated due to ICT. The following example of Cisco Systems Inc. demonstrates a potential of a faster development of engineering education. Since its establishment in year 1984 Cisco Systems Inc. has extensively influenced in engineering education development in Internet Protocol (IP)-based network technologies. As a pioneer of its industry Cisco has been actively invested in education. They are offering IT-related content, new approaches for both instruction and learning. In addition to their own employees Cisco is currently globally offering learning possibilities for university students, instructors and IT professionals. The Cisco Networking Academy® Program is based on a partnership between businesses, government, education and community organizations to form a new kind of global educational ecosystem. The Academy program is open for educational organizations such as high schools, community colleges, and universities. Only organizations with non-profit status are eligible to become Academies. This global partnership alliance, includes approximately 10,000 educational institutions in over 160 countries. Globally there are over 420,000 students attending the Academy. The curricula consists of 16 courses covering a broad range of topics from basics on how to build and maintain a network, to creating a website, object-oriented programming, and more complex IT concepts such as applying advanced troubleshooting tools. CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) curriculum is available in nine different languages. A number of the Academy courses are aligned to national and/or state standards in science, math and language arts. In addition, soft skills such as career planning, project planning and teamwork are integrated into each curriculum. The Networking Academy program utilizes a blended learning model, integrating face-toface teaching with a challenging web-based curriculum, hands-on exercises, and Internet-based content and assessment.Academy graduates are prepared for networking and IT-related careers in the public and private sectors, as well as for higher education in engineering, computer science and related field. Cisco’s approach is challenging the traditional engineering education in several dimensions. They have established an unique and extensive global education system, they are providing guidelines and training for instructors and students and they have been creating new learning technologies for instructing and new ways of learning. Nokia Corporation has been facing similar situation as Cisco related to mobile systems in software engineering. Mobile systems have become an important and widely expanding area of software engineering. At the same time, there is a severe shortage of experts in the field, especially in mobile software engineering. Nokia people are working in the area to further enhance engineering education in collaboration with engineering education institutions. In order to accelerate the development in the area Nokia is running a Forum Nokia University Program with academic institutions to enhance R&D cooperation, innovation creation and mobile application education development. There are over 70 universities globally participating in the program. The intention is to create an environment for open innovation in mobile entertainment and communication area to advance mobile multimedia application development. The current content covers for example mobile web services, Symbian, Flash Lite, Linux and Python programming and user interface development. The first

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international programming and mobile curriculum conference was held in Tampere, Finland in May 2006. Companies are not only creating new content and partnerships, they are also changing methods for learning and teaching. Apple is co-operating with several universities in its Apple Digital Campus Collaboration program. In the Duke University’s Fundamentals of Digital Signal Processing course, students have been using their iPods to record environmental sounds and collect pulse rate data during physical activity. These recordings have been brought to the laboratory to be visualized, manipulated and analyzed. Using iPods as recording storage devices has both provided a real-world component to the course and facilitated data transfer and student collaboration, introducing a hands-on laboratory to provide real applications for theoretical concepts presented in class. Duke’s Center for Instructional Technology has developed metrics by which to measure the success or failure of the various academic uses of iPods in this pilot program (http://www.duke.edu/ddi/). In the emerging engineering areas the role of certifications and accreditation varies. Cisco has been actively been creating certification system for its learning programs. All parts of the system are certified or authorized. The students are taking certified exams (written exams and practical lab tests) in authorized testing centers worldwide and they are given diplomas for their accomplishments. There are also general career certifications for technology areas (e.g. routing and switching) and for different levels (associate, professional and expert). In addition to general career certifications, there is also specialist certification in technologies such as IP telephony. The certifications expire in two to three years and recertification exams are required. The network technology is evolving continuously and certification system aims to guarantee that certifications holders have kept up with the current trends. Certification system is implemented globally. It emphasizes the importance of the engineering expertise and continuous capability development at individual level. Cisco and also Microsoft certifications are recognized and trusted globally among the IT industry.

6.

Conclusions

Industry–university collaboration seems to be actively increasing in the engineering education development in several areas. In the future both research and education will be multidisciplinary requiring knowledge from a broad range of fields. Crossing boundaries of disciplines are important source of new innovations (Science and Engineering Indicators 2002, 2006; Castells and Himanen 2002; Korhonen-Yrjänheikki 2004). Probably the most important challenge of the whole university system is to get science and technology to serve better the needs of the society (Boulding 1998, Rhodes 2004). The service management Master’s program at the Institute of Industrial Management in Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia provides an exciting opportunity for developing new kind of service management curricula and for renewing the engineering and management education to meet the challenges of the ICT industry. The program provides practical framework to develop service management education internationally. Industrial companies are working together with educational institutions for renewal and redirection of engineering education. The companies are establishing global network structures, education eco-systems, that are crossing borders between disciplines, nations and different levels of educational institutions. The networked world of learning seems to be emerging. This challenges current national educational institutions, certifications and accreting systems to rethink their traditional practices.

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About the authors Kati Korhonen-Yrjänheikki works as Futurist of engineering education at the Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers TEK. During 2000–2004 she headed an anticipation and development project on engineering education, FuturEng (www.tek.fi/futureng) that is continued by a national strategy project on the Finnish engineering education years 2006– 2008. Her research interests are related to futures research of higher education, especially engineering education. The researcher holds several positions of trust related to the development of the Finnish engineering education and higher education in general. In SEFI she is a member of the board since 2004. Besides her work as Futurist, the researcher is a PhD student at the Helsinki University of Technology TKK, where is she received the Master’s degree in 1997 and the Licentiate degree in 2004 (degree between Masters and PhD in the Finnish degree system). Taina Tukiainen, Head of Industrial Management in Stadia. Previously she has worked for 18 years within the industry, the last 10 years at Nokia Corporation as senior manager. She has worked for several years as a researcher and senior lecturer in various educational institutions. She has Dsc(Tech) degree from Helsinki University of Technology.

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Minna Takala is a Senior Development Manager at Nokia Corporation. She has been with Nokia since 2002. Before that she has worked as a Special Lecturer of the School of Management at New Jersey Institute of Technology (2000–2002) and at Helsinki University of Technology for 8 years being a Project Manager, Planning Officer and Researcher (1992–2000). Being both researcher and practitioner, Minna has participated in a number of development and research projects related to engineering education development, development of industrial services and innovation management. Minna graduated from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management of Helsinki University of Technology with the major in industrial management. There, she also got her Master and Licentiate degrees and is currently studying for a PhD degree.