For engineering majors, language, communication and experimental ability are indispensable.

On February 7th, The Beijing News (liuxue86.com) reprinted the article "Language, communication and experimental ability are indispensable for studying abroad for engineering majors". According to the American Open Door Report 20 1 1 released many years ago, among the top ten hot fields for international students to study in the United States, engineering ranks second, only next to business and management. Engineering is also a major field that many China students like to choose when studying in the United States.

Industry insiders predict that the good development momentum of engineering degree with master of engineering as the main body will continue. Our reporter Gao Yu photo

In addition, in Britain, the United States, Canada and other countries, there are many preferential policies for engineering students because of the relative shortage of engineering talents. In Britain, the employment situation of engineering students majoring in materials, chemical engineering and engineering is better. In the United States, engineering majors such as electronic engineering and mechanical engineering are often at the forefront of the starting salary list for graduates. In Canada, engineering majors give priority to immigrants, and graduates have broad employment prospects.

From the domestic point of view, the demand for excellent engineering talents is also very strong. On June 20 10, the Ministry of Education launched the "Education and Training Plan for Outstanding Engineers", aiming at training a large number of internationally competitive engineering and scientific talents. At the same time, some foreign universities also cooperate with domestic universities to carry out Sino-foreign cooperative engineering education projects. In addition, top professional associations such as British Engineering Technology Association have also accelerated the pace of cooperation with universities and enterprises in China.

Schools with good comprehensive and professional rankings in the United States are the most popular.

Yi Yan, deputy director of the American Project Department of Jiahua Shida, told the reporter that according to the students' consultation and application, the top five majors applying for American University Engineering College are electronic and computer engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical and materials engineering, civil engineering and biomedical engineering. Among many American universities, the ones that are most favored by China students are those with good comprehensive ranking and relatively high engineering majors, such as: University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of Southern California, Carnegie Mellon University, UCLA, Pennsylvania State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Florida, etc.

Yi Yan said that as far as the management of its institutions is concerned, the schools with the most students applying are usually those with a comprehensive and professional ranking of 50- 100, such as Boston University, Northwest University, University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers New Jersey State University, University of Connecticut, Illinois Institute of Technology, Worcester Institute of Technology and so on. Although the engineering schools of the above schools rank in the top 100, the engineering schools of each school also have their own advantages and strengths. When choosing a school, students should not only refer to the ranking of engineering schools, but also understand the advantages and employment prospects of each school.

As far as application requirements are concerned, taking applying for graduate students as an example, applying for TOP 100 American University Engineering College should meet the following requirements: the GPA of the top 50 students in comprehensive and professional schools should be above 3.5, and the percentage system should be above 85; For schools with comprehensive and professional rankings between 50- 100, the GPA is above 3.0, and the full score 100 is above 80. TOEFL 80 is the basic requirement for admission or not. The higher the ranking, the more students apply, and the corresponding score requirements will rise. 90- 100 will be more competitive, and the GRE is best at 1200. In addition, good internship or laboratory experience can also play a plus role in applying for prestigious engineering schools.

"Engineering is one of the largest industries in the world, and there are millions of professionals engaged in this industry. With the intensification of international economic competition and the transfer of major technology investments in the United States, research jobs will be relatively reduced, and high-level professionals, especially all kinds of compound talents, will be very popular. " Yi Yan predicted that the good development momentum of engineering degree with master of engineering as the main body will continue.

Canada's mining, forestry and shipping industries enjoy a high reputation in North America.

Li Fang, chief overseas expert of Canadian Education Center, said that engineering majors in Canada can be divided into electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, mining engineering, petroleum engineering, civil engineering and construction engineering. In recent years, with the global energy crisis and energy utilization, Canada's mining, forestry, oil and gas, shipbuilding, hydropower and nuclear power industry, environmental resources protection and other industries have attracted attention and occupied a leading position in the world. Canadian universities are also very advanced in teaching and research of these majors.

Li Fang suggested that if students want to pursue further studies in the resource industry, they can choose the majors of mining engineering and mineral processing engineering in the University of British Columbia and Memorial University of Newfoundland. If you want to develop in the electronics and communication industry, you can consider the electronics or communication engineering of the University of Calgary and McGill University. Those who are determined to make a difference in the oil field can consider the majors of oil and gas engineering in university of alberta and Memorial University of Newfoundland (the former focuses on land oil exploitation, while the latter focuses on offshore oil exploitation).

Others, such as finance of Concord University, automobile engineering of Windsor University, nuclear engineering of McMaster University, ship technology of Newfoundland Memorial University, materials science of Queen's University, and biotechnology of the University of Saskatchewan, enjoy a high reputation in North America.

As far as the application is concerned, the language score requires IELTS not less than 6.5 points, all items not less than 6 points, and TOEFL not less than 90 points. Some schools need to provide GRE scores, and the average score is above 80. In particular, we need to pay attention to the professional course scores of juniors and seniors.

■ Expert reminder

British engineering education attaches importance to cultivating students' oral ability.

● Mick Short, Chairman of ●IET (Engineering and Technology Society)

In terms of engineering education, I personally think there is not much difference between China and Europe and America. The main difference may still be in the number of projects actually involved, actual operation, application practice and design technology. In addition, after finding a solution to the problem, engineers have to reach an understanding with others. Therefore, British engineering education attaches great importance to cultivating students' expressive ability, especially their oral ability, and helping them express their ideas confidently. In addition, in order to ensure the quality of courses and the reputation of the school, British universities will cooperate with enterprises and consult academic organizations including IET.

In Britain, universities work closely with enterprises through a series of measures. If enterprises are invited to participate in the course design to make the course content more in line with the requirements of enterprises, we will also send experts and engineers to teach in universities and provide learning materials to share experiences. In addition, students will practice in the company or do some practical projects with engineers. In addition, there are some competitions and competitions. For example, in the application of some development projects, if the players stand out in the competition, they can also get bonuses to continue developing their own projects.

The engineer's work also involves health management and environmental construction.

Ian, director of IET international operations

We should make the study of engineering more interesting, attractive and meaningful. Especially in China, the work of engineers involves not only automobiles, airplanes, ships and rail transit, but also housing, health management and environmental construction.

At IET, we divide the standards of international engineers into five abilities, including the ability to learn and apply knowledge and innovation; Engineering practice ability, innovative ability to analyze and solve engineering problems; Technical and commercial leadership, with comprehensive technical, commercial and management capabilities, leading the team to effectively complete the task; Interpersonal communication skills, good technical project description skills and effective communication skills; Professional ethics, social responsibility and sustainable development.

■ Students' experiences

Language ability is equally important.

Xu, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles.

Remind students who want to study engineering that English language ability is also very important. Usually, when doing research, we usually do experiments in groups, so we should communicate with others most of the time, learn from others and ask for advice. And we have a group meeting every week to report the research results of this week's experiment to the team members and teachers. At this time, teachers will ask a lot of questions, so you should protect your point of view, which makes sense logically.

Brainstorm with students from all over the world

● Wang Yijiao, graduate student of environmental engineering, University of Southern California, USA.

When we study with China students, American students and Indian students, you will find that their ways of thinking and angles are quite different from ours. There are also classmates in our group who have strong leadership skills. Every time we chat, he will ask us what problems we have first, and then brainstorm and make targeted improvements. After several visits, I found that our group made great progress and got the highest score in that class. (Reporter Yan)