A diagram of the EngD programme is shown below: from induction to graduation, including the critical stage-gates of the project, and highlighting the supervision and quality assur-ance procedures. The taught component comprises 180 credits, a 25% of the student effort on the EngD.
There are three strands to the taught component:
- An intensive, two-semesters phase of 12 courses delivered in attendance in university. Project Based Learning (PBL) will be extensively used during this first phase (120 credits).
- Summer schools (40 credits).
- Integrated studies in management, business, innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship, delivered during the research phase to maximise relevance and utilisation of gathering experience with company (20 credits).
The four years of the IDCORE training programme including credit bearing taught courses, research skills development, the industry based research project and cohort development activities. Icons are defined in the course descriptors.
Courses are taught and examined by the IDCORE partners with most appropriate skills and facilities. The timetable of delivery across semesters 1 and 2 enables students to be in resi-dence on campus when the universities are best placed to deliver the taught programme.
Industry-academia interaction occurs during the whole programme. Industry input provides underpinning material for the initial taught phase, while the latter company-based research phase is supplemented by additional taught material whose delivery will build on the stu-dent expanding experience.
A complete description of each module is included in Curriculum.
The management element is delivered in open/distance learning style by a combination IDCORE academics and practitioners from collaborating companies. Industry input into the taught component will see three industry-led courses; an introductory group project; a major interdisciplinary group design project, and a specialist summer school.
Quality of the Training approach
IDCORE is founded on the need to develop and sustain a truly-networked cohort of students who have a deep understanding of the Societal, Technical, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical aspects of ORE. In this new CDT, Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI) and Ethical Engineering have been included as golden threads that run throughout. Within each year group, project work is used to develop a strong cohort. Three annual events (an ORE Conference, the Industrial Seminar Week and a Cohort building event) bring the students back from industry to join the 1st year students to develop a single cohort of IDCOREans.
The training programme comprises 180 credits (120 in the first year) of mandatory integrated study which students must pass in order to graduate. Courses are bespoke, block taught, and led by experts drawn from across the consortium (Edinburgh, Exeter, Strathclyde and SAMS). These are supplemented by non-credit bearing courses on thesis writing and preparing for a viva, delivered through the University partners’ academic excellence programmes. In addition, a range of specialist, non-credit bearing courses can be taken by students to support their project.
A guiding principle for the first year is that “this should not feel like more of the same” – IDCORE is not simply MSc-type training preceding a research phase. This distinction is achieved by a focus on assessment strategies appropriate to both the level of study and the cohort-based approach (e.g. timed, open-book, assignments are used in place of written, closed book exams).
