The Future of the Bachelor's Degree in Technology

I want to discuss something serious. Like just where is the BSET degree going? I have always had the nagging feeling that it was not really necessary especially today. Maybe when those degrees were first offered they were just the right thing but with so many changes in electronics engineering over the years, maybe the BSET is just a redundancy.

The first bachelor's degrees in technology came along in the mid 1960's. I know. I have one called a Bachelor in Applied Science (BASc) given by the first school to award them, the University of Houston. The idea was to fill the need for jobs called "technologists". Not engineers or not technicians, technologists. Well as it turned out there never were any jobs called technologists in industry. I have never seen such a thing in my 30 plus years in industry. When I got my BASc in 1965, I was immediately hired as an engineer and all my subsequent jobs were with that title. Most employers never heard of technologists but of course knew what techs were and engineers. My BAS degree adequately prepared me to do most engineering. The only topics I did not get were statics, dynamics and thermo which I never used anyway.

The same thing is roughly true today. BSET grads mostly become engineers. Maybe more of them go into manufacturing, sales and marketing, field service but a large percentage of them do actual engineering. Don't tell those with PE licenses as they will have a hemorrhage. PEs never accept the fact that you don't actually have a PE license to do engineering work. That is especially true in electronics.

So what am I saying here? Is the BSET really necessary? Why don't we just call that degree a BSEE in applied engineering or something like that and make the BSET departments part of engineering? When I look at the curricula for EEs and ETs at the BS level they are so close that it seems silly to duplicate. Both BSEEs and BSETs take the same math and science any way, and the electronic courses mostly use the same texts and cover the same material just under a different rubric. How dumb is that? I know it is political and turf building more than anything.

Another part of the problem is that as AAS degree programs move toward a more systems approach and one less focused on circuit analysis and design they become a poorer fit for transfer to BSET programs. I say let AAS programs concentrate on the needs of technicians and industry and less on what is needed to transfer to a BSET program. I suspect the total transfers from AAS to BSET to be very small anyway. If an AAS grad wants a BS degree, he or she should go to a university offering an Industrial Technology degree. It is a better fit anyway.

What are your thoughts on this?

LF

New Book on the Systems Approach

You have probably been hearing about how the right way to update an AAS degree curriculum in electronics is to pursue a systems path. You can certainly read about it in one of my past posts. That approach is to begin emphasizing systems and equipment and concentrate less on components and circuits. Modern techs do not analyze or design circuits.....they are not engineers. And few if any are headed to be engineering techs even if such jobs were plentiful. Most techs today do troubleshooting, service and repair. They install and operate equipment. And the do lots of testing and measuring. Yet the current curricula is still stuck in the old "troubleshoot to the component level" thing or teaching ten ways to bias a BJT when MOSFETs clearly rule electronics these day.

So far I have not identified any system level texts to help you go the system route. But I did write a book that takes that approach. It is called Electronics Explained: The New Systems Approach to Learning Electronics. It is published by Newnes/Elsevier and is available now. You can get a copy through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It is not a formal textbook, but more a trade book but it gives you a good look at what a text would cover and how it would cover it.

If you want to get a head start on revising to the highly touted systems approach, this book will get you started. And don't forget to go to the Esyst website that I mentioned in an earlier post. www.esyst.org.

LF