SURVEY OF CURRENT TRENDS IN MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMMES IN THE UK

Abstract

The promotion of innovation and current trends in the Manufacturing Engineering curriculum is essential to support the adoption and creation of advanced manufacturing technologies. However, the content and teaching methods employed by the engineering departments have long faced issues with incorporating industry needs and new developments into their various curricula. Manufacturing Engineering (MfgE) is no exception as there exists significant gaps between the MfgE curricula, latest advances in research and current industrial practices in Trinidad and Tobago (TT). The present paper investigates the trends in postgraduate programmes in the United Kingdom (UK) in the area of MfgE. It highlights the current curricula structure and content of universities in a developed region with a similar education system to TT with the aim of identifying key areas of MfgE focus. The study reveals that UK universities balance soft skills with technical learning, as research skills, management, manufacturing systems, systems simulation and, design and innovation are the top course themes. Moreover, there exists significant collaborative efforts between UK universities, industry and the government which drives research and development of emerging technologies. The findings of this study will be useful as a benchmarking tool for improving the TT MfgE curriculum in the future.