ENGINEERING ETHICS EDUCATION: MORE THAN A CEAB REQUIREMENT
The Canadian Engineering AccreditationBoard (CEAB) requires faculties of engineering toincorporate graduate attribute 3.1.10 “ethics and equity”into their curricula. More than the CEAB requirement,engineering educators have an obligation to preparestudents for the ethical dilemmas they will inevitably facein their workplaces and their lives. Our analysis of surveydata collected during a pilot study of our ethical casestudies project examines a gap between students’perceptions about the effectiveness and importance ofengineering ethics education. While there was aconsiderable range in participants’ ratings of theeffectiveness of previous engineering ethics coursework,they consistently placed a high value on the importance ofethics in engineering education. This finding is significantbecause it challenges the prevailing assumption thatengineering students’ disinterest in non-technicaleducation is the primary barrier to effective ethicsinstruction.