Promoting creativity in engineering programmes : difficulties and opportunities

Increasingly more researchers in education and industry have come to recognise the importance of nurturing creativity among engineering students. Since 2000, several engineering programmes in Hong Kong have introduced design subjects aimed at nurturing students’ creative capabilities. The structure and content of these programmes have also been revised to cater for practical needs and difficulties. Taking Hong Kong as a case study, this paper first identifies new needs arising in engineering programmes and highlights a number of deficiencies requiring attention. The paper then briefly explains the aims of the new programmes and reviews changes made to design subjects over the past ten years. It identifies the successes recorded and difficulties encountered in implementing the original good intent of these programmes. Based on the Hong Kong case study, the paper then discusses future development opportunities for the promotion of creativity in engineering programmes.