22
17.
18.
19.
6
Whatever career he may have in view, no engineering
student can specialise until he has completed his Inter
mediate Examination Part II, and on entering upon the
Third Year course he must begin to specialise.
Electrical
and Mechanical Engineering are so closely allied that in
the Third Year very little differentiation is called for,
and even in the Fourth Year considerable interlocking
naturally and inevitably remains. The distinction between
either of these and Civil Engineering is however quite
marked, and differentiation is effected in the Third Year.
The degree of specialisation at this stage is of course
far from extreme, but it is real, as no student who has
chosen Mechanical or Electrical Engineering in his Third
Year can change to Civil Engineering in his Fourth Year.
In any case no question of "drifting" can arise, as
at every stage the student can take only what is provided
by the established curricula. The question whether a
more marked degree of specialisation should be introduced
in the 3rd year is one for the Faculty of Engineering and
not for the student. We think that the Faculty might give
this fresh consideration, even although in past years it
has frequently had to acknowledge the dangers of premature
specialisation in face of the uncertain economic conditions
of the Far East.
G.R. Para. 15 recommends that careful records of the
careers of its graduates should be kept by the Faculty
of Engineering. We quite agree that such records would
be useful and interesting, but we also realise that
securing the necessary information requires either clever
detective work or the active cooperation of the graduates
themselves. The experiences of the other Faculties would
be of interest here. Probably the task should be entrusted
to our Appointments Board rather than to the Faculty.