Training in Advanced Engineering Design

Engineering design and the education and training of more high-calibre engineering designers to ensure an increased flow of advanced technology, high-quality products from British shores, is becoming critical. This is recognized by an increasing number of top managements in industry, the Science and Engineering Research Council, Department of Trade and Industry and other leading bodies in the country. There is no doubt that comprehensive capable engineering designers cannot be produced solely from undergraduate courses and therefore urgent attention should be paid to establishing more postgraduate courses and other means of continuing education in advanced engineering design and development—including those which are project based—and to examine methods by which this might be achieved. A discussion meeting with invited senior participants, held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, and chaired by Sir Robert Lickley, is reported.