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Fig. 1. General Outline of the present Master of Science in Engineering Curriculae at KTH. The
horizontal lines divide the students into groups following the same curriculae.
In the first and second year emphasis is put on
mathematics, mathematical statistics, numerical
analysis, computing, informatics, physics,
mechanics, but basic courses in engineering and
applications are also given, so as to introduce the
students into the subjects of their future selectives
(branches). It is typical that each school has
designed their own contents of courses in
mathematics, calculus, etc. The teaching is given by
the departments of mathematics, physics,
numerical analysis, mechanics. The boards of the
schools decide the compositions of the curriculae,
budgets, and general policy. The schools "buy"
teaching from the departments, which "deliver" the
services according to the specifications.
The system of "buying" and "selling" teaching has
lead to a situation where e.g. the departments of
mathematics and physics teach several different
courses with almost the same contents to different
schools. It is realized that teaching the
fundamentals of sciences and mathematics could be
done more cost-effective and with a better quality if
students from several schools followed the same
courses.
There has also been a clear tendency that the boards
of the schools have favoured their own departments,
ie. they prefer to include more courses from applied
disciplines in the curriculum, rather than buying
courses from departments of other schools. The
members of the board represent many different
categories: teachers, undergraduate students, PhD
students, employees, and external representatives of
the profession. No one group can have a majority of
votes. In this system, and particularily in Sweden,
everybody wants to make everybody happy.
Department heads propose new courses, the board
says yes, equal distribution of money, etc. leads to a
large number of small courses in applied subjects.
291
Students get a splintered and divided impression of
the knowledge communicated to them. There is,
however, big variation between the schools in this
respect. The School of surveying has been able to
avoid splinting the curriculum into too many and too
small courses.
NEW POLICY FOR CURRICULAE AT KTH
We live in a changing society. The development is
faster now than before. New needs and problems will
present themselves more frequently in the future
than today. Industry and government
representatives talk about life-long continued
learning. Universities should teach for competence
rather than profession. To meet the future needs and
requirements on engineers, KTH has decided a new
general structure of curriculae.
The new policy says that emphasis will be on
fundamentals, more mathematics, physics and
computer science. More about the role of engineering
in society, i.e. environmental issues, economy,
languages (Swedish is a small language), resources,
management. Less of applications, and less of
training of professional skills. A few large courses,
rather than many small ones.
The new policy will make it possible for the students
to change from one school to another, and to select
optional courses up to certain number of credit
points and include them in their curriculum. The
diploma project report will be of higher quality and
comparable to a MSc thesis.
The first 1 - 1,5 years of study will be a base program
in mathematics and science. There will be only two
or three such programs. The next 1-1,5 years will be
a base program in a school of engineering. There
will be 11 - 12 such programs. The last part of the
curriculum is a competence program, which