Engineering ethics education: More than a CEAB requirement

Abstract

The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) requires faculties of engineering to incorporate graduate attribute 3.1.10 “ethics and equity” into their curricula. More than the CEAB requirement, engineering educators have an obligation to prepare students for the ethical dilemmas they will inevitably face in their workplaces and their lives. Our analysis of survey data collected during a pilot study of our ethical case studies project examines a gap between students’ perceptions about the effectiveness and importance of engineering ethics education. While there was a considerable range in participants’ ratings of the effectiveness of previous engineering ethics coursework, they consistently placed a high value on the importance of ethics in engineering education. This finding is significant because it challenges the prevailing assumption that engineering students’ disinterest in non-technical education is the primary barrier to effective ethics instruction.