SUSTAINABILITY INTEGRATION INTO ENGINEERING CURRICULA: A CHOICE BETWEEN ‘STAND-ALONE’OR‘INTERTWINED’

Abstract

In view of the mounting evidence on the destruction of environmental quality and loss of cultural heritage as a result of technology development, various organizations have seen the dire need for sustainable development which can be acquired through education on sustainability. In institutions of higher education, engineering is one of the programmes that are active in seeking to integrate sustainability into its curricula. Several researchers have conducted researches on means of incorporating sustainability into engineering curricula and such means can generally be categorized into the horizontal or vertical approach. An integration approach is considered horizontal when the sustainability or environmental component is intertwined into the existing courses. On the other hand, integration through a specialized or stand-alone course on sustainability is considered as vertical approach. Both of these approaches are used and there is no consensus on which approach works the best. The existing literature has shown evidence on engagement of these two approaches by the American, European and Australian Institutions of Higher Education. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has not been any similar study for the Malaysian IHE. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the current sustainability integration approach for 3 traditional engineering disciplines, namely Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering in 5 Malaysian IHE. An analysis of the engineering syllabi was conducted to identify if horizontal or vertical approach is used by the selected IHE for these 3 engineering disciplines. The result showed that horizontal approach was more commonly employed compared to vertical approach. This finding concocted with opinion of some of the researchers that sustainability education through horizontal approach may be more suitable for engineering programme which encourages interdisciplinary learning