Benchmarking a Sustainable Energy Engineering Undergraduate Degree against Curriculum Frameworks and Pedagogy Standards from Industry and Academia

Bryn Durrans, Jonathan Whale and Martina Calais
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Bryn Durrans: Discipline of Engineering and Energy, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
Jonathan Whale: Discipline of Engineering and Energy, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
Martina Calais: Discipline of Engineering and Energy, College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-32

Abstract: There is an urgent need for educational institutions to produce graduates with appropriate skills to meet the growing global demand for professionals in the sustainable energy industry. For universities to stay at the forefront of meeting this global demand from industry, universities need to ensure their curricula and pedagogies stay relevant. The use of benchmarking is a key means of achieving this and ensuring any gap between university curricula and the practical needs of industry is minimized. The aim of this paper is to present an approach to benchmarking a sustainable energy engineering undergraduate degree with respect to curriculum frameworks recommended by industry and pedagogy standards required and recommended by academia and education research. The method uses the Murdoch University renewable energy engineering degree major as a case study. The results show that the learning outcomes of the renewable energy engineering units, in general, align well with the recommended learning outcomes for a complete sustainable energy degree, as prescribed by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. In addition, assessment task and marking criteria for the capstone unit of the major were at Australian Universities’ standard. A similar approach to benchmarking can be adopted by developers of new or existing sustainable energy engineering degrees in order to align with curriculum frameworks and pedagogy standards required by industry and academic peers.

Keywords: renewable; sustainable; energy; undergraduate; engineering; education; curriculum; pedagogy; frameworks; standards; industry; benchmarking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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