A study of naval architecture and marine engineering higher education to build a foundation of future engineering managers in the South African maritime industry

Abstract

The maritime industry is inherently global, with seafarers and expatriate skilled engineering graduates employed worldwide, away from the places they grew up and obtained their specialist qualifications.  Consequently, any higher education qualification in the maritime sector must ensure that graduates are equipped to compete internationally for employment opportunities, and be prepared for the engineering challenges of the future.This paper presents a study on the naval architecture and marine engineering (NAME) higher education in South Africa and compares it to three international marine education universities.  A qualitative content analysis methodology was employed to analyse the module content of each international institution.  Patterns that emerged from the analysis were used to compare against the curriculum of the current Bachelor of Engineering Technology in Marine Engineering degree programme that is offered by the Nelson Mandela University in South Africa (since 2018).The analysis of the international programmes identified 18 themes that a quality NAME programme should encompass to meet the academic requirements for the future engineers in the global maritime sector.  The study recommends the addition of a 4^th year honours degree and a 5^thyear taught master’s degree to the existing three-year undergraduate Bachelor degree in Engineering Technology in Marine Engineering.  The proposed curriculum, unique in the South African Higher Education environment, will enable graduates to apply mathematical and scientific principles to the ‘design, development and operational evaluation of self-propelled, stationary or towed vessels operating on or under the water, including inland, coastal and ocean environments’