Realistic student enquiries, global challenges and the role of a development charity

Engineering programmes within highereducation have significant scope to makea contribution to global challenges suchas sustainable development and solutionsto world poverty. Alongside such acontribution to society, universities are alsoexploring ways to focus student learningaround realistic enquiries. It is thereforeimportant to explore approaches thataddress such challenges and pedagogies,which indeed also offer a way forward inattracting and motivating students, and inpreparing them for suitable careers.We report here on an evaluation of astudent-based engineering design servicefor development organisations, involving apartnership between a charity, a universityand development professionals. Theservice involves teams of undergraduatestudents designing, making and testingintermediate technologies. The paperexplores a model based around enquirybasedlearning, and draws on a set ofnaturally-occurring reflective accountsprovided by the students involved.While learning about technical issues wasimportant, the study shows how a realisticdeveloping-world context motivated studentwork, enhancing students’ confidence andreadiness to make a difference. Varioustechnical issues emerged with scope tohamper the educational experience, as didthe challenge of ensuring fairness acrossdifferent enquiries. Strategies are proposedto manage rather than ignore or reducesuch variation, an issue which has receivedrelatively little attention hitherto in relationto project work or enquiry-based learning.