Brazilian Education
This week’s readings were about Engineering education in Brazil. Main take-aways:
- Poor STEM education in high-schools
- Curriculum is too theoretical and lacks ‘soft-skills’ training
- Job market complains about the quality of graduating engineers
- Need more interaction between academia and industry
- Dropout rates and enrolment rates are terrible when comparing to BRICS and OECD countries
CNI, 2014, Recursos humanos para inovação: engenheiros e tecnólogos.
- Few patents, expensive process
- Engineering education is outdated
- Barriers in collaboration between universities, research centers and the market
- Low tradition in multi-disciplinary research
- Research financing does not demand financial or concrete results
- PhDs are all in academia 98.3% (40% in the US)
- Academic stricto sensu limits interactions with real world
- Teach more creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship
- Great problem with evasion – only 50% finish degree
- Historic deficit of engineers, only 1% of graduates are engineers
- Current teachers have no market experience
ITA/MEI, 2014, Fortalecimento das Engenharias no Brasil
- Low salaries for engineers comparing internationally
- Ill prepared and not innovative
- Fields of study are too narrow – should offer a broader curriculum
- Collaborate with international institutions
- See above… much of the same information but in quantitative terms
Strengthening Engineering Education in Brazil
- See above… much of the same information but in quantitative terms – report based on CNI’s report.