In general, ethical dilemmas are seen as simply another class of “problem” that can be tackled by the typical engineering rational-scientific procedures. However, this is not the approach that many of our country’s universities follow. Our main goal, together with these other institutions, is to get engineers to think in non-engineering ways, to have them grapple with issues that cannot be simply quantified. All the experiences which we are going to expound on in this section, agree with promoting engi-neering education reform. They call for greater emphasis on pro-fessional and ethical responsibility in the engineering curriculum.
Or, in other words, it is thought that ethics across the curriculum has the potential advantage for helping students understand that ethical and societal considerations are integral parts of engineer-ing and not simply add-on material.
After several years of meetings with colleagues belonging to other universities and talking about how to integrate ethics con-tent into engineering degrees, we have realized that they are the starting point of our study. Their experiences have allowed us to expose the process of the current research work. So, let us cite those schemes carried out in engineering programs, by face to face universities, which have given us this opportunity:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). At this university we find the subject called “Ètica per a l’enginyeria” (3 ECTS) in the third year. This subject is an obligatory course and belongs to the Computer Science Engineering Bolonya degree. The teacher who has led the introduction of ethical issues is Josep M. Basart.
The subject is about the ethical aspects inherent to the exercise of the profession in order to show the students what ethically responsible conduct in their professional environment is. From the view point of applied ethics it is a very practical course, based on activities such as debates, case study, role playing, movies, etc.
The subject demands a very active involvement of the students by means of exposition and reasoning for their view point, prac-tising their capacity for argumentation and discussion and also their communicative skills.
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). At this university we find the subjects called “Tecnologia i societat” (3 LRU credits) and “Technoethics” (3 LRU credits). These subjects are optional courses and belong to the old syllabus of Telecommunication Engineering degree. The teachers who have led the introduction of ethical issues are Climent Nadeu, José B. Mariño and Mireia Farrús. The first subject is the macro-ethics area of technology and society, while the second focuses on the micro-ethics area of professional responsibility. Both courses are based on active participation of students in the classroom, mainly through the use of debates about cases of ethical conflict, where opposed
viewpoints have to be argued. Movies and documentary films are also used to foster discussion and case study methodology is largely used.
Despite these types of non-technical courses being a stimulat-ing challenge for students (and teachers) and that such courses help them to reflect about the social and environmental aspects of technology in order to become more aware of their mutual interactions and, as a final goal, to comprehend the important involvement of ethics in the daily engineering practice, these jects have disappeared from new engineering degrees. These sub-jects are not currently present within the new programs, missing an opportunity that is already rarely found in the other courses which are nearly all technical. In such cases, the new degrees seem to be taking a step backwards when the complexity of tech-nology and its ability to transform nature and society is continu-ously increasing and, consequently, the engineer’s responsibility is becoming more and more apparent.
Facultat d’Informàtica de Barcelona (FIB). At this faculty, belong-ing to UPC university, we find the subject called “Aspectes Socials i Mediambientals de la Informàtica” (6 ECTS). This sub-ject is an optional course and belongs to the Computer Science Engineering Bolonya degree. The teacher who has led the intro-duction of ethical issues is Miquel Barceló. The subject is about different ethical aspects such as codes of ethics, laws, software piracy, hacking, science, technology and society. It is a very prac-tical course based on activities such as debates, case study, mak-ing reports, presentations, etc. Here, again, the subject demands very active involvement from the students through the interac-tion between them when building a well-constructed reasoning about the ethical case under discussion.
Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS). At this faculty of the Universitat Ramon Llull (URL) we find two subjects. On one hand, we
have “Ètica Professional” (5 ECTS) in the fourth year. This subject is an obligatory course and is part of the Industrial Technology Engineering Bolonya degree. On the other hand, we have “Ètica” (5 ECTS) in the third year. This subject is also an obligatory course and part of the Chemical Engineering Bolonya degree. The teacher who has led the introduction of the ethical issues is Albert Florensa. The subjects are based on the analysis of the relationship between sciences, technique, man and society.
Afterwards, a general introduction to the ethics is made in order to discuss ethical practical matters bound to the engineering pro-fession. Both courses also involve the active participation of stu-dents in the classroom. From a well informed script the stustu-dents have to deal with the particular ethical issue expressed. Movies, documentary films and reports are also used to foster discussion about cases related to professional ethics.
Deustuko Unibersitatea (DU). This Basque recognized institu-tion has an internainstitu-tional reputainstitu-tion for its excellent educainstitu-tion in the field of ethics. An expert team of teachers leads the train-ing in ethics within the different syllabuses. They have varied lines of research with regard to ethics such as “Ética aplicada a la realidad social”, “Ética social y política”, “Ética en las organ-izaciones” and “Cooperativismo y economía social y solidaria”.
They are involved with diverse networks of for the discussion of ethics and other organizations (i.e., UNIJES), furthermore, they work with South American universities (México, Colombia, Perú, Chile, etc.). Additionally, each member of the team is involved in activities related to the university programs such as: training in postgraduate courses and others, publications in journals, communications in congresses, projects’ leadership and so on.
This university has a large curriculum in ethical education and its evidence is proved through its own centre of ethics “Centro de Ética aplicada” of Deustuko Unibersitatea (DU) at the web site www.etica.deusto.es.
As a specific example, at this university we find the subject called “Desafíos éticos en el mundo global” (6 ECTS) in the sec-ond year of study. This subject is an optional course within the Telematics Engineering Bolonya degree and an obligatory course within the Computer Sciences Engineering Bolonya degree.
The teacher who leads the subject is Jaime Cuenca. The subject is focussed on providing tools that help students when facing critical situations of the psychosocial environment in order to act effectively. Other abilities developed through this subject are:
reflection on the concept of the engineering professional, on his sense and social end; knowing the rights and duties of the engi-neering professional by means of codes of conduct; being able to incorporate ethical criteria into the analysis and resolution of real cases related to decision making in ethical dilemmas; identifying responsibility as a guiding principle of the professional ethics of engineering; collaborating actively in the achievement of com-mon aims with other people and so on.
It is interesting to mention the teaching profile of those who lead all of these real proposals on ethical training. The majority of them come from a background of technical instruction, but some have additional studies in humanities, an exceptional fact (or not so much in recent times) taking into account the extreme technological nature of engineering careers. However, the main common denominator is their great interest and willingness to teach ethics within engineering syllabus. All of them think that it is worth devoting a meaningful portion of the learning time of students to the social and human aspects of their instruction as engineers in order to announce the ethos associated with their profession which, very often, seems to be almost missing in their awareness. The whole idea is to expand the engineer’s approach to their daily engineering practice towards being a responsible professional with the society, the ecosystem and the environment in which they live.
We hope that these combined efforts will continue unabated with respect to the development of both curricular content and learning methods. However, despite our commitment to close collaboration and to working together in this direction, there are still some systemic difficulties that are likely to impede the effec-tiveness of ethics education within engineering degrees. Even so, this joint action is not prepared to abandon this educational engagement with professional ethics and social responsibility and we believe that one way to address these difficulties at the undergraduate level is through a change in the nature of degree engineering education to include a component on ethical and societal concerns.