Principal of the Mona campus, University of the West Indies, Professor Gordon Shirley (right), greets three of the first batch of 20 students pursuing the newly introduced three-year BSc Electronic Engineering undergraduate degree programme, (from left) Matthew Myers, Kelton Edwards and Mesha-Ann McKenzie, at the launch of the course at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre, Mona, St Andrew, November 9. - JIS Photo

The Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) is now offering an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering, which the school says will provide graduates immediate employment in the telecommunications and manufacturing sector.

The tuition cost for the degree, which is being offered here in Kingston in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences as an extension programme of the UWI, St Augustine Campus in Trinidad, is in the region of $180,000 per year, with 80 per cent subsidy from the government of Jamaica.

"We have started with that - electronic engineering - because we have a need to develop manufacturing," says programme coordinator, Dr Ronald Aikin, a senior engineer.

"We are putting together other proposals for a master's programme where the return for industry will be even greater in terms of design and innovation for the sector. We need to develop industries, and science and technology will take us out of the state we are in, which is using more than we are producing. If we can persuade students to pursue studies in science and technology and engineering, our future will be a better one," the engineer said.

improved access

The number of Jamaicans who do engineering programmes in Trinidad has been falling and so the offering of the full degree in Kingston should improve access, Aikin said.

The programme is designed so that Jamaicans can do the first year of the course and then transfer to St Augustine, which does a wider range of engineering programmes, but not one in electronics.

To qualify for the programme, Jamaican students will need mathematics and physics passes at CAPE or GCE Advanced level, or equivalent qualification.

undergraduate enrolment

At Mona, students who have passed mathematics and physics at ordinary level, or CSEC, will be able to do a preliminary year in the faculty of Natural Sciences in order to qualify for enrolment in the engineering degree.

In 2007-2008, the undergraduate enrolment in the Faculty of Engineering in Trinidad was 1,419, with only 53 of the students being Jamaican.

Only 12 new Jamaican students were registered in 2007. This suggests that St Augustine is not seen as an effective option for Jamaican students seeking tertiary engineering education, information supplied by the UWI revealed last week.

The school also noted that the expansion into electronic engineering follows on discussions with the Jamaica Institution of Engineers, the conduct of a needs survey, and the university's examination of the Government of Jamaica's document on critical-skills needs in the public sector.

emerging disciplines

Apart from the need for traditional engineers in areas such as civil and electronic engineering, there was also a demand for emerging disciplines, such as biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and energy engineering, which are currently underserved.

The three-year Bachelor of Science in electronic engineering, a first effort to meet these needs, is offered through the Electronics Unit in collaboration with the Department of Physics at Mona.

Areas of study cover engineering physics, computer science and mathematics, electronics and electrical circuits, engineering management, accounting systems, new-venture creation and entrepreneurship, as well as telecommunications or industrial instrumentation.

It is proposed that on graduation, UWI students will be technically qualified for immediate employment in the fields of telecommunications and industrial instrumentation, and also have capabilities to design, develop and test electronic equipment and instruments.

They should also be able to use modern engineering techniques and tools to identify, formulate, and solve electronic engineering problems and be able to adapt to future changes in the discipline.

Graduates are also expected to apply newly learnt theories and skills to the technological and industrial development of Jamaica and the Caribbean region, demonstrating an understanding of ethical, societal, and professional responsibility, the UWI said in its description of the new programme.

avia.collinder@gleanerjm.com