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Session 3213

The Core Graduate Chemical Engineering Program: Does It Exist? David Kauffman Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico

Abstract

A survey was undertaken to determine the prevalence and co ntent of a “core” of courses in chemical engineering graduate programs in the United States. The survey was sent to 127 schools. Every school of the 83 replying to the survey had either a set of required courses or a “cafeteria” set of core courses required for graduate degrees. Transport phenomena and thermodynamics were required by almost every school, with kinetics/reaction engineering and applied mathematics following close behind.

Introduction

There is considerable uniformity among U.S. schools in terms of the content of the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum. This is due to several reasons: the relatively small community of chemical engineering faculty, especially those who have major influence on curriculum design; the many years of strict ABET program requirements, which left little room for variation if a school wanted to assure itself of a trouble-free review; and the practical matter of the growing number of students who transfer from one school to another. It was suspected that this degree of uniformity carried over to graduate programs, but there was little information available to determine whether this were so.

An initial screening of web sites for fifteen chemical engineering departments in the U.S. showed that most, but not all, have a set of core courses required for graduate students earning masters and/or doctoral degrees in chemical engineering. The sets of core courses, however, are not uniform, though they most often include thermodynamics, transport phenomena in some form, applied mathematics and kinetics/reaction engineering. A wider survey was taken to establish to what extent there is consensus among U.S. universities as to the content of a “core” of courses for graduate degrees in chemical engineering.

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Kauffman, D. (2002, June), The Core Graduate Chemical Engineering Curriculum: Does It Exist? Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10219