ISSUES ADVERSELY IMPACTING THE ABILITY TO INTEGRATE GEOSYNTHETIC TECHNOLOGY INTO ENGINEERING GRADUATE AND POST- GRADUATE EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

This paper attempts to detail pertinent educational, economic, and social issues that limit an engineer’s exposure to geosynthetic technology within the engineering undergraduate educational system and post-graduate continuing educational requirements. The paper will review past and current graduation requirements for a civil engineering degree, pressures to limit or reduce graduation requirements, and policies that set the educational requirements for graduation. The roles of the National Council for the Examination of Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) in qualifying and quantifying engineering educational requirements are detailed. Also discussed is the role of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) in promoting policies for engineering education for Professional Engineers and continuing education requirements for the P.E. license, and how the current licensing renewal criteria does little in mandating the level of education needed to develop sufficient basic knowledge of geosynthetics. The ability to implement specific technology (e.g. geosynthetics) certification or licensing is also reviewed and discussed within the paper, and how taking on this task is a “slippery slope ” for all those involved. The inability of the current engineering educational system to keep up with advancin