Industry–University Partnerships: Engineering Education and Corporate Social Responsibility

AbstractIndustry-university collaborations have been promoted as a way to introduce students to the day-to-day activities and internal workings of industry and enhance student understandings of their future roles as practicing engineers. As engineers are increasingly being called on to participate in gaining and maintaining the social license to operate for companies engaged in natural resource development, their roles are expanding to include more in-depth interactions with the public. Unfortunately, most engineering curriculums do not include courses specifically focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR), a concept that encompasses the practices and policies that are crucial to social license, and many new hires do not learn about CSR until employment begins. In response to this gap, this article specifically studies the ways in which industry-university partnerships change engineering students’ knowledge and attitudes about corporate social responsibility, which builds on existing engineering education research on student learning about social responsibility more generally. By sharing results from a study of pedagogical enhancements in required petroleum engineering field sessions, this article concludes that industry-university partnerships can help students develop more holistic perspectives on CSR and the sociotechnical nature of professional engineering practice.