Engineering Clinic Program (ECP): Its Roles in the Engineering Education in Japan

The Department of Basic Engineering in Global Environment (DBEIGE) of the Kogakuin University started only six years ago with the objectives of educating its students to become global engineers. The essential requirements set forth in DBEIGE as the global engineer include 1) the communication skills, 2) the international sense and knowledge, 3) creative thinking, and 4) management skills in addition to the strong basic and specific scientific and engineering knowledge. ECP has been established as one of the key courses in DBEIGE to teach and enhance the four elements described above. It is essentially an industry-university collaborative program where the project themes are provided by the industry together with their technical liaisons. With this new educational program first in its kind in Japan, the graduates seem to be better trained in terms of communicating, thinking globally and creatively, and managing things well than those from the conventional engineering institutes in Japan.