(98b) New Curriculum to Culture Future Chemical Engineers (Tianjin University)

In this paper, the rapid development of Chinese chemical education in the past 10 years is reviewed and the challenges are outlined. Engineering education at Tianjin University is introduced and the chemical engineering program accredited by the IChemE is used as an example to illustrate the curriculum design.

According to the latest statistic data, there are 2347 universities and colleges in mainland China by the end of 2010, of which, 1108 universities can offer bachelor programs and 481 universities can offer master programs. Only about 300 universities can offer PhD programs. As for chemical engineering education, there are 303 universities have bachelor programs, 110 universities offer master programs, and only 40 universities can offer PhD programs. The enrollment for chemical engineering students is about 340 thousand compared with the overall enrollment of 21 millions.

The high standard of research is penetrated directly into the curriculum design and other teaching links, ensuring the graduates well equipped with up-to-date techniques, methods and knowledge basis. The teaching and learning is orientated to the expressed needs of industry and has an excellent reputation. Moreover, the investment in facilities and academic staff can provide an excellent experience in a friendly and supportive environment.

The purpose of engineering education is to train the future engineers. Thus it is vital to train the students’ design skills. The design courses are structured so that the design aspects are covered in four years. In the first year, a new course “Introduction to Process Design” is developed to give students a general idea about the outlines of process design. In the second year, the first design project is introduced. In addition, students have the opportunity to visit several chemical plants and gain first hand experience about the chemical plant design. In the third year, the second design project is given following the courses “Chemical Equipment Design” and “Mass Transfer”. The final design project starts at the beginning of the 7^th semester after the selection of the projects and team members. The final design project requires the students to undertake a major design task utilizing the knowledge gained throughout the chemical engineering program.