A new concept for mining/minerals engineering education and research in cooperation with industry

This paper presents a new concept for educating mining/ minerals engineering students, which may be more attractive to the prospective students and also may allow the industry to mould the future professionals even before their fulltime employment. According to the new concept, the students, after the first two years in a college/university for the foundation/basic courses, will be centered in the industry, where minerals engineering coursework will be offered in structured or self-paced learning formats through the internet. The students will start working up to 50% of the time with the industry after completing the initial two years of degree courses in a college/university and simultaneously take the additional required courses for the degree through distance learning systems established in the modern universities. This new approach is only possible due to the internet revolution of the modern day and the establishment of distance learning courses/programs. The concept has several advantages, including: (1) Industry hiring local area students who have the potential to be long-term employees; (2) Industry's early access to employees with developing engineering skills; (3) On-the-job training while going through school, thus reducing industry training costs after graduation; (4) More effective learning through observing complex operations at operating mines; (5) Students and industry input for continuous improvement of the curriculum; (6) Greater amenability on the part of industry to actively participate in research and development since faculty will be more attuned to industry needs; (7) Increased participation of undergraduate students in university research; and (8) Increase in the flow of real research problems for graduate students. The implications for student quality, accreditation, assessment of partnership, academic freedom, and fundraising for scholarship and research are discussed briefly in this paper.