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Master of Engineering: Past, Present, Future

Peter Dorato, William Lyons

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of New Mexico/ Department of Petroleum Engineering New Mexico Tech

I. Introduction

The concept of Master of Engineering (M.Eng) developed in the 1960s in reaction to two factors. One factor was the recognition that a 4-year bachelors degree was not sufficient to properly educate an engineering professional. Various engineering-education reports identified more and more subjects that engineers needed in their first professional degree. In 1955, the ASEE Grinter Report 1 recommended that more mathematics and science be added to the engineering curriculum. In 1956, the Burdell Report 2 recommended that more humanities and social sciences be added to the curriculum. This was at a time when most Bachelors degrees in Engineering required over 140 semester hours of course work. Even then, the need to go beyond a bachelor’s degree became more and more evident. Finally in the ASEE Walker report of 1968 3, a case was made extending engineering education beyond the bachelor’s degree. To quote from the report 3,p. 376 , "There is little doubt that during the next decade we will witness a rapidly developing consensus that the master's degree should be considered the basic professional degree in engineering."

The second factor was a movement to model engineering schools along the type of professional schools found in law and medicine, with a pre-professional program, followed by a professional program leading to a graduate degree. In 1965 Burr reported 4 on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) efforts along these lines. At RPI a 3-2 program was developed, with 3 years of pre-engineering course work followed by 2 years of professional education, leading to a Master of Engineering degree. This program was reported in 1965 by an article by Burr 4. To quote from Burr's article 4, p.287,

"The program centers on the creation of a new professional school of engineering. The program differs from current educational practice in that it recognizes that a broad preengineering experience must precede the professional education; further it acknowledges that postbaccalureate education is an essential qualification of the modern engineer."

It should be noted that the concept of an M.Eng. program was quite distinct from the Master of Science (M.S.) programs, which existed, in various engineering disciplines. The former was a practice oriented post-bachelors program, with emphasis on engineering design, while the latter

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

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Lyons, W., & Dorato, P. (2002, June), Master Of Engineering:Past, Present, Future Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--11212