European Higher Education in Nuclear Engineering: current trends

Transcription

1 European Higher Education in Nuclear Engineering: current trends Michel GIOT Prof. Em. Université catholique de Louvain Chairman Scientific Advisory Board of SCK CEN Avenue Herrmann-Debroux 40 B-1160 Brussels Belgium Tel , Fax , michel.giot@uclouvain.be Summary The paper involves three parts. In the first part, the clustering and updating efforts that took place in Belgium are described. Today, six universities and the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN) cooperate in a Master degree, taught in English at the premises of SCK CEN. The second part of the paper presents ENEN, the European Nuclear Education Network Association which involves many universities and actors of the European nuclear sector. The last part of the paper discusses the sustainability of these efforts in the context of the evolution of the general education in science and engineering on the one hand, and of the evolution of the needs of society on the other hand. 1. Introduction Higher education institutions are undergoing an evolution. Today, thanks to the Bologna induced harmonisation process and to the networking of universities, the European students are offered real opportunities to be trained in two or more establishments. In the mean time, the higher education institutions are under pressure to improve their ranking by focussing their research areas on a limited number of strong points; correlatively many institutions have reduced the number of their teaching subjects in accordance with their selection of research areas. Although the European industry repeatedly expresses its needs for scientists and engineers with a broad education, many academic programmes become more and more specialised. The classical polyvalence in engineering education is being replaced by divalence, for example: materials science + biomechanics; signal processing + bio-imaging, etc, or even monovalence. Throughout Europe, the place devoted to project based learning (PBL) including multidisciplinary projects has significantly increased in engineering education. Access to advanced computing facilities and codes, data bases, and on line communication systems (ITC s) has a deep impact on the learning process; however, distance learning is not yet of current practice. 1

2 Lifelong learning has become the objective of education: training as a means to complete, reorient and update the knowledge is becoming more effective. Unfortunately, in most countries, the proportion of young people undertaking studies in exact sciences is declining, probably as a consequence of the negative ideological attitude of a part of society in relation to the scientific progress. What are the impacts of the above evolution on the future nuclear expertise? 1) Students mobility, and to a lesser extent teachers mobility have become a common practice; this includes the internships and training programmes offered by nonacademic organisations. The BNEN and the ENEN initiatives, summarised in sections 2 and 3 of this paper, offer examples of this trend. These initiatives try to compensate the fact that fewer universities are offering extensive programmes, whereas excellence is practiced in selected topics by a number of institutions. 2) Industry requires more high skilled generalists, complaining about the difficulty to recruit them, and once recruited to keep them in the company; today, at least in some countries, the attractiveness of the master in nuclear engineering or in nuclear sciences, as well as the level of motivation for doctoral studies in these fields are increasing among the young students in exact sciences. Section 4 of this paper discusses the expectations for the future. 2. BNEN At the end of the nineties several studies drew the attention of the academic and public authorities as well as of the industry on the declining interest for higher education on nuclear subjects in Europe. It was noted that the insufficient flux of graduates, as well as the decreasing number of strong educational programmes could jeopardise the operation of existing nuclear power plants, the development of new reactor types, and also waste management and the future dismantling of nuclear installations. In Belgium, the awareness resulting from these studies led to new clustering efforts of master-level education. With the support of the nuclear sector, six universities of the Flemish and the French Communities decided the merge their masters in nuclear engineering into one single programme taught in English and widely open for international participation. It was decided to locate the teaching at Mol, at the premises of the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK CEN) in order to benefit from the most relevant environment of researchers and laboratories, including research reactors. The consortium of six Belgian universities and SCK CEN is called BNEN ( Since October 2002,BNEN (Belgian Nuclear Higher Education Network) is running the new Master programme with industrial support. Each university is responsible for providing the teachers required for a part of the programme defined in the grid below. A steering and a teaching committee ensure the coordination. Each student registers in one of the partner universities and after successful completion of the programme receives the diploma from this university on behalf of the consortium. This programme being a Master after Master has been particularly designed for young professionals who need to specialize in nuclear engineering. Therefore the programme is organised in a modular way, each course being taught continuously during a few days or a 2

3 few weeks. Moreover, the participation to the full programme can be extended over two or even more years. The participation of European and other international students is increasing; in particular, BNEN welcomes ERASMUS students who attend part of the programme and/or prepare their thesis work at SCK CEN. An international quality assessment was organised as a pilot assessment exercise after four years of operation. The results show that 92.7% of the evaluators either somewhat agreed (30.9%) or strongly agreed (61.8%) with the statement saying that the overall scientific/technical level of the courses is good. The results were even more positive for the statement: The BNEN scheme university and research centre cooperation is useful as a European model, since 19.6% of the evaluators somewhat agreed, while 75.0% strongly agreed with this statement. Recently, the BNEN consortium has installed a strong QA system. 3. ENEN ENEN, the European Nuclear Education Network, started as a project of the 5 th framework programme of the European Commission. Today, ENEN has become an international Association ( whose 44 members are universities or clusters of universities, nuclear research centres, industrial companies, and regulators. The objectives of the Association are threefold: 3

4 Promote high quality education and training clusters throughout Europe (links with research, industry and regulators); Promote mobility of students and teachers thanks to a consensus on the core contents of the nuclear engineering programmes; Make nuclear engineering education and training visible and attractive (and therefore develop links with research). HUT LUT UU KTH UM UH UB TUD AGH-UST UG SCK-CEN HMS UF ULg UJV KUL, UCL RUB CTU TUM,ISAR CEA-INSTN USt ATI EPFL ETH IJS UL INPG CIRTEN STUBA BME UPB, CITON USC CIRTEN UPM, UNED US UPC, ETS CIRTEN NTUA Thanks to the support of the European Commission, of the research centres and the industry, ENEN has succeeded to set up a certificate of European Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering, a set of training courses for professionals and for PhD students, some procedures for quality assurance, as well as for students and teachers mobility. The core contents of a master in nuclear engineering have been defined in terms of preferred nuclear core courses (see table below). Preferred Nuclear Core Courses ECTS Introduction to Reactor Engineering 6 Reactor Physics 6 Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics 6 4

5 Safety and Reliability of Nuclear Facilities 6 Reactor Engineering Materials 6 Radiology and Radiation Protection 6 Preferred Nuclear Core Laboratory Course ECTS Nuclear Reactor Engineering Laboratory 6 In order to face the problem of equivalence between courses of different institutions, a list of substitute courses is proposed (see table below): Substitute Nuclear Core Courses ECTS Nuclear Facilities Environmental Impact 6 Nuclear Fuel Cycle 6 Structural Mechanics Nuclear 6 Nuclear Power Plant Technology 6 Fluid Mechanics 6 Reactor Control and Instrumentation 6 Nuclear Waste Processing and Disposal 6 Reactor Kinetics 6 Substitute Nuclear Core Laboratory Courses ECTS Nuclear and Radiation Physics Laboratory 6 Plant Simulation Laboratory 6 Today, in 2007, with the ever-growing concerns regarding climate change and the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the efforts of the universities, in particular within ENEN, are being considerably amplified. Nuclear engineering students and teachers are offered more grants, new opportunities of mobility, and excellent recruitment possibilities. Moreover, following the example of BNEN, and under the impulsion of ENEN, clustering of nuclear education is developing in several European countries: Italy with CIRTEN, NTEC in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. Through a new project in FP6, called ENEN II, the ENEN Association tries to establish closer links with the networks of radiation protection and waste management. 4. Expectations Within the ENEN II project, discussions are going on about the needs of nuclear education engineering in the long term. The ENEN Association is willing to offer a think tank function as a body above the parties, and participate in national and European strategic studies funded by private or public organisations. Using a question and answer process, let us summarise our vision; this might stimulating further discussions within the nuclear community. 3.1 Which specific skills and competences will be required in the future for those working in the nuclear sector? The efficient and safe operation of current and future nuclear power plants worldwide requires motivated professionals, with a strong inter-disciplinary grooming in nuclear and reactor 5

6 physics, thermal-hydraulics, materials sciences, radio-chemistry, instrumentation, etc. Even more: such generalists with profound knowledge are needed in all types of organisations dealing with nuclear; getting nuclear a sustainable form of energy production depends on the ability to educate a new generation of them. Moreover, radiation protection is and will remain a common basic discipline. In view of the increasing number of installations reaching end of life, dismantling and waste management technologies will become more and more practiced, and will thus require more educated people. The deployment of GEN III reactors will require a new generation of well-educated engineers and technicians. The R&D on GEN IV reactors, and on the fusion technologies, requires additional innovation and competences. The New Member States, where the main nuclear development is expected in the years to come should play a substantial role in nuclear education and training. In some member countries, nuclear subjects still attract only a declining number of students; in many countries the numbers of students are low compared to other areas, and the perceived role of nuclear in society is minor. Starting from the point of view that education is linked to culture, it is important to support and motivate students in a well spread manner around Europe; a possible perverse effect of international exchange could be the creation of a small number of strong poles of education at the expense of large non-educated regions. 3.2 Should nuclear energy education remain separated from general energy education in the university curricula? The competition between several energy production modes has been exaggeratedly presented as conflicting, whereas the continuous request for clean, economic and safe supplies implies energy mixes, with variable compositions according to the local characteristics of the different regions around the world. Progress in education at all levels is needed to promote a more rational and flexible approach to the energy issues. Note that this progress should follow a much better widespread understanding of the basic concepts of physics and chemistry: still at the beginning of the 21 st century, most of the energy consumers cannot make the distinction between 1 kw and 1 kwh 3.3 What are the needs for trans-disciplinary experts? Besides this progress in education at all levels, the member countries, their governments, the investors need experts with a trans-disciplinary education in energy: the expertise should cover both production (different modes) and consumption (domestic, transport), economy, ecology and safety. The European universities should consider this curriculum in their future programmes. 3.4 How to better organise education for the nuclear industry and the nuclear medicine throughout Europe? A set of disciplinary Masters dedicated to nuclear science and technology geographically spread around Europe and operated as a network is needed to cover the needs of the nuclear industry and the nuclear medicine. At least part of this education must be based on research. 6

7 In this context, stronger links must be developed between the research centres and the universities, as also between the universities and industry. The mobility of researchers has to be privileged with respect to the mobility of teachers. 3.5 How to attract a larger number of good students in these disciplines? The greatest challenge is indeed to attract a large number of good students. Scholarships can help. ENEN Association could set up a European data base of scholarships for Masters, internships and PhD theses. The nuclear energy sector should contribute to financing the scholarships. 3.6 What are the financial problems and needs for funding? A significant part of the R&D public budget shall be devoted to universities conforming to the highest standards in nuclear science and engineering research. Therefore, financing of research cannot be too much separated from financing of education. Appropriate funding should thus be devoted to the education in general, as well as for special integrative actions such as the creation of trans-disciplinary modules, the management of the networks, the student mobility, the visiting scientists, etc. Fiscal incentives for higher education and training actions should be proposed. Strengthening of public-private partnerships for the co-funding of university chairs and of laboratories would be beneficial. 3.7 Is there a particular need for teaching materials? Teaching materials, such as books, and distance learning tools and recycling modules should be part of the required evolution, because of presently insufficient availability. 3.8 What should be the links between the universities and the nuclear sector? The quality and intensity of contacts between the students and the economic world require a special attention at bachelor and master levels. This can be achieved through internships, theses, seminars, etc., and taken into consideration in the quality assurance system of the higher education institutions. A more active participation of industry representatives in the advisory boards of universities would ensure a better feedback. A closer collaboration of the nuclear academic community with the stakeholders, in particular the industry and the regulatory bodies is desirable. 3.9 Is there a future for nuclear research centres? It is highly desirable that appropriate research and teaching infrastructure will continue to exist in Europe, in particular in the research centres. They provide unique opportunities for internships and laboratory sessions How to improve safety culture? Safety culture and quality assurance will continue to require specific competences for those working in the nuclear sector, while they are also present in other fields like process industries, aeronautics, etc. Progress in safety culture supports safety; links should be further developed between the approaches in the nuclear, the process and the aeronautical industries. 7

8 All three are facing the same request for improved safety. Education can also benefit from such a synergy How to improve the visibility of the nuclear research activities? Dissemination of research activities of PhD students, awards for best master and doctoral theses deserve new opportunities. More visibility of the nuclear research and education community in the media requires new efforts of publishing in large audience newspapers and magazines. 5. Conclusions The European networking of nuclear engineering education is contributing to providing the European nuclear sector with the new generation of engineers and scientists that is needed to ensure the transition between the present and the future nuclear installations. However, this networking is only possible and efficient if it is supported by local and national high quality education systems. The nuclear sector should help the public authorities achieve this goal. Acknowledgements The author expresses his thanks to the European Commission and to the Members of the Think Tank of the ENEN II project (Contract N Consolidation of European Nuclear Education, Training and Knowledge Management ENEN II ). He acknowledges important contributions from Yann BARTOSIEWICZ, Philip BEELEY, Rakesh CHAWLA, Leon CIZELJ, Borut MAVKO, Emilio MINGUEZ, Joseph SAFIEH, Anselm SCHAEFER, Vladimir SLUGEN, and Georges VAN GOETHEM. New ENEN web site: home page: 8