RECONTEXTUALISING ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

The state of engineering education in South Africa is a complex one with the nation producing fewer and fewer engineers in relation to the number of engineers needed with the nation. While the reasons for this are varied, there is a need to reconceptualise engineering education to meet key priority needs. The engineering curriculum must be reviewed and lecturer's skills must be improved upon to ensure that the process of training these engineers is responsive. The paper concludes that educational reforms are unavoidable especially in engineering education to ensure the field gets enough resources, lecturers are appropriately trained and students are supported to complete their degree programs. Also, students should be encouraged to engage in postgraduate programs so as to tackle in increasing need for engineers who can reshape the future of the nation through creativity and entrepreneurship as opposed to those would be seeking for jobs upon graduation.