Practice-oriented engineering design education - an institutional comparison
Year: 2013
Editor: John Lawlor, Ger Reilly, Robert Simpson, Michael Ring, Ahmed Kovacevic, Mark McGrath, William Ion, David Tormey, Erik Bohemia, Chris McMahon, Brian Parkinson
Author: Voß, Markus; Lautner, Hans
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1: DHBW Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mannheim, Germany; 2: HDA Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences
Section: Design Education in Industry
Page(s): 234-239
ISBN: 978-1-904670-42-1
Abstract
The German education system knows two types of institutions endowed with a practice-oriented mission in tertiary education: Universities of Applied Sciences and Cooperative State Universities. Despite their common dedication to practical application both types of institution offer different learning environments. The authors compare the BEng programmes in Mechanical Engineering of both systems, illustrate the findings on the example of two neighbouring practice-oriented universities in the South of Germany and work out practical consequences for teaching Engineering Design. The scientific contribution of the article is in objectivising the discussion of the existing organisational differences between different practice-oriented types of institution in tertiary education. The main differences found between both types of institution are in the pacing of learning and in the time frame for applying the acquired theory to practice.
Keywords: Practice-oriented teaching, engineering design education, German higher education system, comparative study