Prof. Kamel Hawwash

Last week I travelled over to the UK to visit professor Kamel Hawwash, the incoming president of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI).

Prof. Hawwash has done a great deal of  work in attracting and retaining diverse students in engineering, a topic known as “attractiveness” in the UK, and one in which I’m aiming to do more research.

Prof. Hawwash’s SEFI presidency will focus on two main topics:

1) employability and skills

2) attractiveness

We had much to discuss and we met for nearly two hours!  After our meeting, I had a chance to look around the University of Birmingham campus and then explore the city before flying back to Dublin via Ryanair.

At the University of Birmingham, they teach teachers to teach…

…and have policies like the one at DIT that requires new teachers to earn certificates/diplomas in Learning and Teaching.

The campus…

…of the University of Birmingham….

…is quite beautiful.

And I saw produce vendors in two different places–one by the hospital/medical school…

…and the other by the main quad…

…which is surrounded by buildings of all shapes and sizes.