Assessing the quality of corrosion education in the united arab emirates

The economic consequences of corrosion failure can be minimized by an engineering workforce well trained in corrosion fundamentals and management. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) incurs the second highest annual cost of corrosion after Saudi Arabia, given its large petroleum industry. Hence, this study examined the quality of corrosion education in engineering programs of the universities in the UAE. Using a single-embedded case-study design, academia and industry respondents were surveyed on the competence of engineering undergraduates/graduates in corrosion. The findings showed that the dedicated corrosion courses and engineering courses integrating corrosion into the curricula are available in the UAE universities. Regarding the competence of engineering students/graduates, the consensus view was that there was an insufficient fundamental knowledge of corrosion engineering. The industry respondents were highly critical, believing that graduate engineers had a superficial understanding of corrosion in real-life design contexts. The effectiveness of engineering curricula in corrosion is determined by both the competence in corrosion knowledge/skills and the availability of resources (qualified staff and new knowledge from research) to support corrosion education. The findings showed that most departments would not hire new corrosion specialists. However, the aspect of research was more encouraging with the universities reporting availability of departmental research and industry partnerships in corrosion research. This paper gives recommendations for improving the knowledge and skills of future engineers in corrosion management and for enhancing corrosion training to better meet the industry needs.