Teaching Ethics to Engineering Students in India

Abstract

Most engineering colleges in India have integrated ethics courses into their curriculum for the reason that students may develop an ethical ability to engage in sound decision making. However, there are differences noticed in defining the concept of “ethics” by the engineering students and the teachers who teach them ethics. Often, it is observed that students' positions with regard to ethics courses are egoistic pragmatism while the teachers follow idealistic pragmatism. This ideological difference makes teaching ethics to engineering students a difficult task and thus undermines the effectiveness of the ethics course. The major objective of this chapter therefore is to examine the extent to which the “gap” can be merged and make the students more ethically responsible. It also helps to achieve more job satisfaction for teachers. Finally, the chapter discusses some suggestions to make engineering students more ethically sensible.