It is for that reason that engineers from industry have played a major role in helping us in the design of new courses, sometimes through membership of working parties and by acting as visiting professors. A willingness of companies to allow staff to act as a visiting professor brings benefits to all of the parties, especially if the companies are prepared to support the cost of such arrangements. However, there are outside bodies, for example the Royal Academy of Engineering, who are prepared to provide funding towards exchanges between academia and industry, and again we are able to provide advice. These developments reinforce the need for a good working relationship between companies and universities. Thus we embrace a broad range of activities covering the needs of a number of industrial sectors.
Successful partnerships have benefits for both communities.
The recruitment of high quality engineers is an expensive process and many companies have recognised the cost benefits of providing industrial placements and the sponsorship of students as part of their recruitment strategy. This enables companies to assess in depth the technical and inter-personal skills of potential employees. The benefit to engineering departments is that the education of students is undertaken alongside industrial training, thereby helping to illustrate the relevance of their studies. It is clear from employment statistics that companies recognise the quality of our engineering graduates. Our intake standards are such that we can offer intellectually challenging courses which also seek to take account of the need for engineers to communicate and have an awareness of the business context of their future activities.