Levels of Ethics Education in University Graduate Programs
Professional ethics are critical in guiding how professionals conduct themselves as they apply their knowledge for providing services to the public. Therefore it should be without question that during education, professional degree seeking students should be taught ethics pertaining to their field of study. However, in many graduate programs in the field of engineering sciences throughout the country, professional ethics is not required for a degree, particularly beyond undergraduate degrees. A study was performed in 2006 polling some major universities, covering most of the geographical areas and states of the United States, on the content of their graduate engineering programs pertaining to professional ethics. The results showed that only a very small percentage of universities had a full course or a subject of a course pertaining to professional ethics. These numbers reflect a significant shortage in the students’ education on how to perform in a professional setting. Five years later in 2011, the same universities were polled again to see if any change has been made to improve the ethics education at the graduate level. The data showed a small increase in the number of schools mentioning professional ethics at the graduate level, but the numbers are still very low. This paper covers the poll results along with an analysis of the findings and attempts to explore the reasons behind this lack of emphases on ethics education in engineering at the graduate level. It also discusses what Universities should be teaching students in regards to professional ethics. The analysis includes skills needed in industry as well as the supporting arguments for the importance of ethics education.