SAICE has recently inaugurated its 114th president, Sundran Naicker. He has a passion for the youth and especially the young graduates and those still studying civil engineering at universities and universities of technology. In his address Code of Best Practice for Civil Engineering Tertiary Education,he discusses the civil engineering and construction industry perspectives on the quality of education at these institutions. He explains what the Engineering Council of South Africa’s role is and what the goal of the SAICE initiative is. Naicker emphasised, “My single commitment on a deliverable for 2017 is the Code of Best Practice for Civil Engineering in Tertiary Institutions.”
In a survey, the industry indicated that the employment preferences are fairly balanced as far as the traditional universities are concerned, but vary considerably for the universities of technology. Another survey at academic civil engineering departments indicated that traditional universities had a lower staff/student ration than the universities of technology. The world average in engineering schools is 1:14; in South Africa, in the universities of technology it is 1:58, and in academic universities 1:42 (2015 figures).
Naicker concluded his address by using martin Luther King Jr’s quote: ”The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
