Toward the Formation of Competitive Global Engineers: The Challenges Facing Engineering Education in Lebanon

Globalization has affected the engineering profession and increased the pressure on engineering programs in developing countries to reform curriculum contents and to revolutionize teaching approaches to ensure that graduates can compete in the global engineering market. This article provides a critical overview of the challenges facing Lebanese engineering educational programs in the formation of global engineers and discusses the effects of these challenges on the engineering career. In Lebanon, the curriculum is highly structured which leaves students with limited choice of taking elective or interdisciplinary courses. Moreover, the reliance on a traditional deductive teaching style and the absence of a national accreditation system have been responsible for deficiencies in students' acquisition of essential professional skills and knowledge for a global and competitive career in engineering. This study provides several implications for engineering education in developing countries, namely about the need to shift focus from teaching content to the development of skills and competencies. A reform initiative that aims at revolutionizing the teaching and learning style is recommended to address the pressing challenges.