Globalisation and Transport Priorities for Education and Research

Transcription

1 Globalisation and Transport Priorities for Education and Research B. Kulcsár* A. Eleıd É. Kövesné Gilicze J. Márialigeti *dean of the Faculty Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Transportation Engineering H-1111 Budapest, Mőegyetem rkpt Hungary 1. Introduction The globalisation as a world phenomenon was accelerated on the turning of the 20 th and 21 st centuries, and by the appearance of multinational companies it has become determinative for the social, cultural and economical development of the European Union and Hungary. Globalisation for states that have newly accessed to the European Union has become a type of developmental priority. Neither the education nor the research can back out of the effect of globalisation, but taking the importance of the technical side of globalisation into account, globalisation on the field of subsidised research has even more influence than education. In our presentation without mentioning generalities we solely deal with the highlighted rule and idiosyncrasies of the higher education of transportation engineering and interconnected research. 2. Globalisation arisen priorities in the development of transportation The spectacular development of transportation and vehicle industry in the 20 th century is basically not result, but rather one of the causes of globalisation. The effect of globalisation can be observed in all sectors of transportation like in vehicular-, air-, waterway transport, as well as in all fields of transportation logistics, but differentially in different sectors. Differences can be explained by the different historical past of those sectors, as the many thousand-years history of shipping can be opposed by the 200 years history of rail transport, the motorised vehicular transport and the 100-year-history of aviation. It follows that it is essential to set the exact developmental priorities of the different sectors, and assign these to specified developmental periods. Having formulated the aim of the integrated transportation system, the Hungarian transportation policy between 2002 and 2005, in connection with the Hungarian National Developmental Plan, has pointed out two main priorities and two ten-year-periods as the guiding principals for the development of transportation and haulage. Priorities mean provision of physical accessibility and creation of competitiveness, whereas the developmental periods are the years between , and The peculiarity of the governmental conception is that while the priorities have remained the same for both developmental periods, the part-tasks of those will be ranked by the available capital resource. The following preferences for the different sectors are derived from the priorities: Preferences of vehicular transportation development: - improvement of accessibility, - preservation of road values - realisation of development with least environmental load.

2 Preferences of rail transportation development: - catching up (rehabilitation with EU support), - differentiation, - regionalisation, - urban/suburban transport. Preferences of waterway transportation development: - realisation of a competitive inland navigation, harmonised with rail transportation. Preferences of aviation development: - extension of airports, - more efficient utilisation of airport capacity. Preferences of transportation logistics development: - application of environmentally safe transportation-logistical solutions. 3. Priorities in transportation-engineer education, deriving from the globalisation of transportation In 2005, when introducing the developmental plan of transportation, the Ministry of Economy and Transport has pointed out the long term realisation of the two main priorities for the education and professional training: - The developmental priorities of transportation has been set by the government basically so, that as much EU-support could be requested as possible, to realise the separate aims. It can be viewed as the most important advantage of globalisation for a catching up member state. As a result, the increase of training number of project managers becomes necessary, especially in the field of professionals with master degree in complex infrastructure-management. - The demand for transportation development can be satisfied with vehicles for combinedtransportation. There is no tradition in Hungary (either) of the Planning, manufacturing, such vehicles or composing of tender needs for public procurement. The educational form and content, which is competent and capable of training such professionals, has to be created, within the defined period. - It is necessary to improve the quality planning capacity of transportation tracks and vehicles. (as an example in can be mentioned, that depending on the developmental state of the industry one in every 4-8 employee of the given country works in the vehicle industry. - It is necessary to improve the educational institutes, R+D activity directly connected to the educational-research staff, and to draw attention during training to the importance and necessity of R+D activity. - The emphases and application of the system approach is essential in the field of education as well as in the field of research. (good example for this, is the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems ITS advised for support within the EU7 framework programmes. 4. Peculiarity of transportation engineer training in Hungary

3 The training of transportation engineering takes place in classical engineer-training institutes as it is traditional in the Hungarian higher education, so it shows all peculiarities that are representative of engineer-training. The educational system, or rather the engineers after leaving the institute have to meet the same requirements, by which all engineers leaving higher education have to become such professionals, who within their own professional knowledge but in all sectors of the economy are able to intervene and ready to take effective action. The transportation engineers in this way are in a high priority position, as their work is appreciated not only by a well defined user group, but by the whole society, day by day, seeing and benefiting from the results of their preparedness, decision, designing- and creative work. The BME Faculty of Transportation Engineering introduced a new two-stage educational system (BSc + MSc) in September 2006 and in spite of the inexperience in the new training form, the obligatory act and the local (inherited) institutional circumscription the Faculty is trying to correspond to all priorities, which were formulated in point 3 above. In the framework of the engineering education being in force at the Faculty in 2006, the possibility is open for getting knowledge connected with transportation, logistics and mechanisation, including the detailed knowledge of the processes realising in the special fields indicated, and the knowledge connected with the machines and equipments (vehicles and mobile machinery) realising the processes mentioned. All the fundamental and complementary educations continued at the Faculty are carried out in accordance with the rules of the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System). The quantity of students labour necessary for attaining the knowledge material of an arbitrary subject is measured through credit-points. One credit-point means on average 30 hours of student s labour, one study semester contains a study material with the quantity of 30 credit-points. Traditional (5-year-long) education leading to a Dipl. Eng. degree: The matriculation for the 2005/2006 Academic Year was the final possibility to commence the traditional, five-year-long, undivided engineering education, leading to the Dipl. Eng. degree. This form of education is continued in the framework of the Faculty with a windingup character in two sections, namely in the section of transportation engineering and in the section of mechanical engineering. The goal of tuition in the Section of Transportation Engineering is the education of engineers who are able to design, organise, control, develop and research transportation and transportlogistics processes in a system oriented way, with special regard to the economical operation, the transport safety and the environment protection. After graduation the young engineers are able to select and control the operation and maintenance of vehicles, machines and equipment used in the transportation processes. In the Section of Mechanical Engineering the goal of tuition is the education of engineers who are able to design, develop and manufacture road vehicles, railway vehicles, aircraft and ships, as well as building machines and materials-handling machines. After graduation the young engineers are able to investigate processes taking place in machines, as well as to control the operation, maintenance and repair of the machines and machine systems mentioned, taking into consideration the requirements of safety, environment protection and energy saving.

4 About half of the whole study-range contains the subjects of the basic module; these subjects are compulsory for all the students of the Faculty and can provide the students with a solid knowledge of the natural sciences, as well as the subjects of public knowledge. After finishing the 4 th semester, the students can select from among the two sections mentioned. Later, after accomplishing the 5 th study semester the students can select the specialisation to be followed. A further selection of subjects from among the sub-specialisations offered by the Faculty for the 8 th and 9 th semesters gives the possibility for the students to get deeper knowledge in the narrower special field selected. In the final semester the students elaborate the diploma thesis, and after a successful final examination if they also possess a foreign language state examination of medium degree type C (in a living language) they receive the (MScequivalent) Dipl. Eng. degree. In the Section of Transportation Engineering the following specialisations can be selected: railway transportation, road transportation, waterway transportation, air transportation, industrial and transportation logistics. In the Section of Mechanical Engineering the following specialisations can be selected: railway vehicles, road vehicles, naval-architecture, building machine and building processes, materials-handling and entrepreneurial logistics, vehicle manufacturing and repair. Two-Cycle, Linear Engineering Education: In the framework of the so-called Bologna process the former 5-year-long undivided engineering education is converted into a two-cycle education, where the second cycle is built on the first one. In the course of the first 7-semester-long cycle a so-called basic certificate in engineering: bachelor s degree can be achieved by finishing a certain basic section (leading to a BSc degree), and later on possessing the basic certificate the studies can be continued in the second cycle of engineering education, and after having finished the 4-semester-long master section (leading to a MSc degree), a so-called master s degree diploma graduation can be achieved. Basic Section Transportation Engineering (BSc) education At our Faculty the BSc-level education, following the undivided 5-year-long education will be commenced in September 2006, by matriculating the students in the basic section transportation engineering. In the framework of the basic section mentioned, the subject-matters of instruction of the former two sections have been united, and the specialisation that had formerly been realised in section level, now takes place by selecting specialisations, within which optional special blocks of subjects give the possibility for the students to get more detailed special knowledge connected to a special field. The transportation engineers received a basic certificate (BSc) taking into consideration also the specialisations are able: - to recognise the demands for transportation and transportation-logistics, to determine the relationships to be applied, - to exert active detailed cognition of transportation- and transportation logistics processes, to manage the processes mentioned together with the technical realisation, - to design processes in accordance with function of the transportation and transportationlogistics system, to select the technical components and to manage the operation of the system,

5 - to keep in operation the vehicles and mobile machines serving the transportation process, to make the control systems operated, to take into consideration the environmental factors, - to perform designing, organising and keeping in operation duties, - to carry out public service and marketing activities, - to continue further studies for the MSc degree. For finishing the studies a thesis is to be submitted, and after a successful final examination, and possessing an appropriate knowledge of a foreign language, i.e. a state accepted medium degree of C -type, students can receive the transportation engineer graduation. The three specialisations and special blocks of subjects of the basic section transportation engineering are as follows: Specialisation in transportation processes, special blocks of subjects: Road transportation, Railway transportation, Air transportation and Waterway transportation. Specialisation in logistics, special blocks of subjects: Organisation of logistic processes, Conveyance and transportation, Entrepreneurial logistics. Specialisation in vehicle technique, special blocks of subjects: Road vehicles, Railway vehicles, Aircraft, Ships, Mobile building machines, Vehicle manufacturing. Master sections (MSc) education The Faculty offers in three master sections a further 4-semester-long education for the young engineers possessing the basic certificate (BSc-degree) in transportation engineering or in similar BSc sections. The three master sections areas follows: Master section in transportation engineering, Master section in Logistics engineering and Master section in vehicle engineering. The goal of the Master section in transportation engineering is to train such dipl. transportation engineers, who are able among others: - to analyse, design, organise and control the transportation processes and systems in a system oriented and economical way, taking into consideration the requirements of transport safety, environment protection and the latest international tendencies, - to provide the connected tasks of administration and public authority character, - to select and keep in operation the vehicles and equipment, as well as the components of the infrastructure, and the control- and informatics systems, that are parts and decisive factors of the whole transportation system itself, - to take part in an active way in the solution of the research and development problems belonging to the special field of transportation, - to continue the transportation studies in the framework of PhD courses. Specialisations: Specialisation in transportation systems, Specialisation in transport automation, Specialisation in transportation engineering-management. The goal of the Master section in engineering logistics is to train dipl. engineers of logistics, who are able among others: - to analyse, design, organise and control the logistic (goods-transportation, materialshandling, storing, commissioning, loading, material-supplying/purchasing, goodsdistributing and wastage-handling) realising the intra-enterprise and inter-enterprises material flow processes and the connected information flow processes, - to design and develop machines, devices and equipment of logistics that are elements of logistics systems, and to co-operate in the manufacturing and quality management, as well as to control the operation of the machines mentioned,

6 - to take part in an active way in the solution of the research and development problems belonging to the special field of logistics, - to continue the logistics studies in the framework of PhD courses. Specialisations: Specialisation in processes of logistics, Specialisation in technical logistics. The goal of the Master section in vehicle engineering is to train dipl. vehicle engineers, who are able among others: - to develop, design and manufacture railway vehicles, road vehicles, agricultural vehicles, aircraft and ships, materials-handling machines, and to make investigations into the processes taking place in the vehicles mentioned - to keep in operation, to maintain, diagnose and repair vehicles and machines, transportation systems and machine systems built up from the mentioned units, with special regard to the requirements of safety, energy saving and environment protection, - to take part in an active way in the solution of the research and development problems belonging to the special field of vehicles and mobile machines, - to continue postgraduate studies in the PhD course organised in the multidisciplinary special field of vehicles and mobile machines (mechanical engineering and transportation engineering). Specialisations: Specialisation in railway vehicle engineering, Specialisation in automobile engineering, Specialisation in naval architect engineering, Specialisation in aircraft engineering, Specialisation in mobile machine and building machine engineering, Specialisation in automated materials-handling engineering, Specialisation in vehicle manufacturing and vehicle repair, Specialisation in vehicle system engineering, Specialisation in transportation safety, Specialisation in alternative vehicle drive systems. The introduction of the MSc level engineering education, the latter takes over the role of the supplementary basic educations organised formerly for engineers who finished their studies in a 3-year-long technical high-school/college education. Doctoral Studies PhD Courses: At the Faculty the 6-semester-long organised doctoral studies are offered by the two accredited postgraduate Doctoral Schools, namely the Gábor Baross Doctoral School for Transport Sciences, and the Kálmán Kandó Doctoral School for Multidisciplinary Sciences (Mechanical engineering and transportation engineering). Special continuation courses Sections of Engineer Specialist training: At the Faculty the special continuation courses (postgraduate courses) for graduated engineers and dipl. engineers are offered in the framework of training engineer specialists and engineermanagers. These trainings are advertised, and they are started in case of an appropriate level of demands. The trainings are 4-semester long duration, and are finished by preparing thesis and going through the final state examination. At the Faculty the following postgraduate trainings are accredited: - Section of engineer specialist training in Entrepreneurial logistics, - Section of engineer specialist training in Industrial Safety, - Section of engineer specialist training in Materials-handling, - Section of engineer specialist training in Mechanisation of building, - Section of engineer specialist training in Technical diagnostics, - Section of engineer manager training in Transportation management, - Section of engineer specialist training in Transport safety technical expert, - Section of engineer specialist training in Vehicle engineering,

7 - Section of engineer specialist training in Vehicle industrial designing, - Section of engineer specialist training in Vehicle maintenance, - Section of engineer manager training in Vehicle technical management. 5. Priorities in research deriving from the globalisation of transportation Based on present technical knowledge and tendencies, in connection with the development of transportation and transportation industry, a maximum of one or two decades of prediction is possible, which does not include the results of a probable fundamental innovation. The energetics and environment-pollution situation however, urges the development of such fundamental innovation. Its scientific conditions are mainly emerging, but its economical, social and technological background is unsure. The researches, connected to the transportation systems, deal mainly with the technical system (vehicle-track-control-organisation) of transportation. Keeping the two-decade-period, declared in the National Development Plan, the governmental budget prefers the support of those topics in the fields of transportation and vehicle-development, which on one hand are connected to grand European projects, and on the other hand ensure the inland industry to improve in quality, safety and competitive power. Within the apparent developmental period in Hungary, the following research fields count as preferably supported sectors: In the field of vehicular transportation: - development of Intelligent Transportation Systems, - research of alternative drive-systems, - development of vehicle-parts manufacturing technologies, - development of conditions of individual transportation. In the field of rail transportation: - research of complex (track-vehicle) travel dynamics to help safe transportation, - research of maintenance, repair and renewal development, - research of helping to raise the standard and efficiency of service. In the field of waterway transportation: - research of conditions of a competitive inland navigation, harmonised with rail transportation. In the field of aviation: - research of development of infrastructure to attend aviation. In the field of transportation logistics: - research and development of environmentally safe transportation-logistical solutions. 6. Summary In our presentation, we have enumerated the priorities out of the globalisation of transportation, which are the most important for the development of the Hungarian transportation, out of these priorities, we have detailed the preferences that refer to the domestic, mid-term development, and we have analysed that deriving from this, what

8 immediate tasks fall on the education and the researches connected to the educational institutes. In view of priorities and preferences, which derive from the globalisation of transportation, we have detailed the structure of the linear, bi-cyclic (BSc+MSc) education introduced in September 2006 at the BME Faculty of Transportation Engineering, and defined the aims of education on the individual sectors. Contrasting all preferences of the transportation-engineer education with the demands, that the engineers come up against after leaving the different sectors and master faculties, it can be stated, that the construction of the introduced transportation-engineer training strives to fully satisfy these expectations. Literature 1. P. Michelberger: Globalizáció és közlekedés. Magyarország az ezredfordulón, stratégiai tanulmányok a Magyar Tudományos Akadémián, VI. A közlekedés és technikai infrastruktúrája. Közlekedés és globalizáció, MTA Társadalomkutató Központ, Budapest pp Magyarország Nemzeti Fejlesztési Terve , Miniszterelnöki Hivatal, Budapest, É. Kövesné Gilicze: A globalizáció hatása a közlekedési rendszer fejlesztésére. Közlekedés és globalizáció, MTA Társadalomkutató Központ, Budapest pp éves a Közlekedésmérnöki Kar, szerkesztette G. Debreczeni, felelıs kiadó B. Kulcsár, BME Közlekedésmérnöki Kar, 2006, ISBN