Application of Ethics Criteria to Engineering Profession: Case Study of Engineering Students at the UAE University

An investigation has been carried out to examine the level of engineering ethics for senior engineering graduating students. The ethical response to some educational and engineering dilemmas for the graduating students has been collected with a questionnaire designed for this purpose. Dilemmas included educational ones that students see every day in their educational life and professional situations that they are to face upon graduation. Educational dilemmas included many situations such as: their behavior at the university, their selection of the engineering discipline, exam time behavior and honesty with colleagues and instructors. Professional dilemmas included their behavior with their colleagues, behavior with their manager, with customers, with deadlines, with free and paid consultations, with life long learning, with efforts-salary relation and with indirect bribery. Students’ response with respect to all dilemmas and on projection to the professional standards are presented and analyzed. It has been shown that exposing students to such dilemmas could be a useful learning tool for engineering ethics.