An Appraisal of Water Resources Engineering and Management (WRE&M) Degree Programs offered in Developing Countries: Case Study of Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan is water scarce country, so water sector industry is one of the most essential industry in Pakistan and a critical asset in helping the country to face the current and future challenges. The performance of water sector industry to large extent is backed by the competence and skills generated by water resources engineering and management (WRE&M) programs offered in Pakistani universities. Pakistan is in an increasingly precarious situation in terms of water resources with rapidly growing population. Pakistan is heading toward a situation in terns water storage and a thread of food insecurity. So, water sector industry requires water resources engineering and management (WRE&M) degree programs to not only provide adequate number of graduates, but also properly train its future leaders in the skillset required in order to quickly become productive workers. Therefore, it is inevitable that the water resources engineering and management (WRE&M) degree programs must be constantly revamped and enhanced to address the education needs of water sector industry. The value of well-defined and structured courses as well as industry experiences and feedback must be inclusive to the programs. These programs need the industry to provide support and input to improve the future water resources engineering and management education and experience level before entry into work force. This research focused on finding ways for the improvement of the water sector industry based on the evaluation of existing practices, curricula and teaching methodology. It identifies the critical skillset needed for water resources engineers as perceived by the water sector and further examines the relative differences in importance of the skills as perceived by the water sector industry. The findings are based on the data collected from the universities offering postgraduate level water resources engineering and management education. Almost 40% respondents agreed that the main reasons to enroll in this program was motivation during bachelor’s studies and 25% of respondents agreed that the main reason to enroll in this program was to remain competitive in local market and to approach international market. 55% of respondents demanded that the program design lacks flexibility to select required courses. While evaluating the teaching methodology, approximately 65% respondents agreed that more than 60% major courses content was satisfactorily delivered by well versed and competent course instructors. This study would be instrumental in providing recommendations to update WRE&M curricula and mode of deliverance in order to bridge the gap between academia and water sector industry as well as to enhance the existing program’s effectiveness with respect to water sector industry advancements.