The Engineering Doctorate — An ‘Enhanced’ Doctoral Programme for Engineers Incorporating Business Decision-Making Skills: A Gas-Turbine Engineering Perspective

Abstract

This paper describes a new UK initiative in the post graduate education of Engineers. The new ‘enhanced’ degree of Engineering Doctorate educates graduate Engineers in their respective technical disciplines whilst at the same time integrating the world of commerce and business into the technical decision making process. The paper describes the initial candidate selection methodology, project selection, course structure, assessment, thesis structure and outputs. The advantages of this enhanced postgraduate training are demonstrated, as are the objectives for the UK in adopting such a scheme. An example is presented from a joint Rolls Royce / Cranfield case study of the Design, Development and Product launch of a new type of Gas Turbine Instrumentation. This is set in a Gas Turbine Engineering perspective, in particular the consideration of active control of compressor surge to benefit aircraft engine fuel burn and increased flight range.