Creating the ethical chemical engineer: pedagogy and practice of teaching ethics in Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering will be critical to countering many global threats over thee next decades, in particular climate change, but also challenges in public health, resource sustainability, innovation in manufacturing, and secure food and energy supplies. Whether chemical engineers play a positive role depends critically on their ethical standpoint: do they act for the common good, and are they trusted by those impacted by chemical engineering? In the UK ethics is a topic highlighted by professional bodies such as the Engineering Council, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and graduate and postgraduate chemical engineers commonly follow modules on ethics as part of their degree qualifications. But teaching ethics presents a contrast with the more ‘obvious’ topics making up an engineering course, such as mechanics, fluids, thermodynamics, process design and so on. In ethics there are no precise, perfect answers; there are no equations and not many easily-quantifiable numbers. This project therefore will consider: how do we teach chemical engineers ethics, and is it working: are chemical engineering graduates ready to be ethical engineers? 

The project will explore different methods to study the pedagogy of ethics in chemical engineering, focussing on the UK as a typical case. Methods could include qualitative research into students’ experiences, by focus group and questionnaire; and theoretical analysis of teaching materials and students’ work, to explore how ethics threads through teaching programmes and learning experiences. Particular foci will include the key elements of chemical engineering degrees in the UK, such as the capstone design project, safety modules and core unit operations teaching (reactors, separations), alongside elements such as industry experience. A further important aspect will be to explore graduates’ immediate and longer-term experience in their careers: asking not only how students are prepared by university education, but how they can then implement their ethical training to impact on actual industry practice. 

The goal of the research is to improve the pedagogy of ethics in engineering, and thus, through better prepared graduate engineers, to improve the ethical underpinning of the engineering professions. Engineers and engineering will be critical to solving many global-scale challenges in the next decades: while enhanced ethics will be critical to public trust of those engineers and their planet-saving engineering. 

The PhD project would suit graduates from a chemical engineering (or other related engineering/science) background, or from an education or related area such as psychology. 

In addition to undertaking cutting edge research, students are also registered for the Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Development (PGCert), which is a supplementary qualification that develops a student’s skills, networks and career prospects. 

Information about the host department can be found by visiting: 

www.strath.ac.uk/engineering/chemicalprocessengineering 

www.strath.ac.uk/courses/research/chemicalprocessengineering/ 

The University of Strathclyde is a socially progressive institution that strives to ensure equality of opportunity and celebrates the diversity of its student and staff community. Strathclyde is people-oriented and collaborative, offering a supportive and flexible working culture with a deep commitment to our equality, diversity and inclusion charters, initiatives, groups and networks. 

We strongly encourage applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnicity, women, LGBT+, and disabled candidates and candidates from lower socio-economic groups and care-experienced backgrounds.