Siemens and the University of Lincoln Engineering Hub
By Professor Andrew Atherton, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Enterprise and Innovation), University of Lincoln
When the University of Lincoln campus was founded in 1996 with investment from local businesses and authorities, a primary aim was to set up a school of engineering that would work closely with the energy and power generation engineering companies that cluster in and around Lincoln.
The new school of engineering was founded in order to develop local capacity to produce industry-ready graduates, provide new opportunities for staff to undertake personal and professional development and to establish world¬class expertise in gas combustion and related technologies.
At the heart of this cluster is Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Limited, which has been manufacturing gas turbines for industrial and corporate clients world-wide from its base in Lincoln for more than 150 years.
Since that time, the university’s partnership with Siemen’s has grown to the extent that in June 2009 a joint submission to the Strategic Development Fund was submitted to support the creation of a new school of engineering; the first purpose built engineering school to be created for more than 20 years.
The new school of engineering was founded in order to develop local capacity to produce industry-ready graduates, provide new opportunities for staff to undertake personal and professional development and to establish world¬class expertise in gas combustion and related technologies.
The UK, in common with many of its European partners, can’t get enough engineering graduates from engineering degrees. It is estimated that the power industry sector alone will need up to 34,000 new graduates, and ‘green engineering’ sectors, including wind power, between 50,000 and 70,000. This helps explain the rationale behind the new engineering school; it will create the engineers of the future.
As such, an initial stimulus for the partnership was the need to identify and attract bright graduates into engineering at a time when enrolments on degrees in this subject were falling and interest in it as a career was waning.
The University of Lincoln worked with Siemens to develop a framework that would attract students to study engineering at Lincoln and provide a means of selecting the strongest for employment in Siemens. Generous scholarships to cover tuition fees, along with a bursary based on academic excellence, paid work during vacations, and work experience as part of the degree were agreed forming the basis of recruitment of the first full-time cohort of undergraduate students in September 2010. Students performing well academically and demonstrating the ability to apply this in the workplace in Siemens will be offered graduate entry jobs on graduation.
To enhance this, the Siemens’ product training team, which is co¬located with school of engineering staff in a dedicated on¬campus building, provide almost 300 hours a year of training in Siemens product technology to students, offering real experience of engineering products and an introduction to Siemens’ production and field engineering services. Co-location of the Siemens’ training team and academic staff from the school of engineering is also expected to lead to accreditation of some of Siemens’ training, personal development of Siemens staff through enrolment on postgraduate taught and research degrees, and mutual understanding and empathy. Siemens’ customers will also attend courses in the building, which is joint-branded.
An initial stimulus for the partnership was the need to identify and attract bright graduates into engineering at a time when enrolments on degrees in this subject were falling and interest in it as a career was waning.
Part-time provision has also been developed, in partnership, so that Siemens could shape the curriculum content and mode of delivery to its staff development needs, starting with a part-time undergraduate degree that is delivered alongside the full-time degree. Members of Siemens staff now study part-time with full-time undergraduates over a five-year period to receive their degrees.
A postgraduate masters course, the MSc Energy and Renewables, was developed through internal competition within Siemens, reflecting the increasing investment of the company, and other businesses, in renewable energy and energy management.
Demonstrating the power of this embedded and genuine partnership, a wide portfolio of research projects has also been developed. These range from developmental R&D through to commercial research and commercialisation of intellectual property. Commissioned on a project-by-project basis, the research has to make a clear case for a return to Siemens. In order to enhance academic output, a formal intellectual property agreement has been signed and a process for publishing research results in peer-reviewed academic journals and other outlets agreed.
And the effects are being felt further afield. As well as the close collaboration between the University of Lincoln and Siemens, the school has developed close ties with local engineering businesses – undertaking commissioned research, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, and access to part-time degrees. This has enhanced Siemens’ supplier network locally, and builds greater capacity within the engineering, power and energy cluster of businesses located in and around Lincoln.
All this and the school only opened its doors in 2010. The partnership is firmly established but with so much activity underway we can only glimpse at the potential impact for our regional economy and for future generations of engineering students to study at Lincoln.
Andrew Atherton is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation & Enterprise) and Professor of Enterprise & Entrepreneurship at the University of Lincoln. He has responsibility for the University’s research, enterprise and employability agendas.
