Engineering programme at UG needs restructuring - Veteran engineer

Engineering programme at UG needs restructuring – Veteran engineer

Apr 20, 2017 News

Veteran Engineer, Charles Ceres

The “inadequate” engineer’s programme being offered by the University of Guyana is to be blamed for all the flawed infrastructural projects being gift wrapped and presented to the government.
This is the contention of veteran engineer, Charles Ceres, who cited a number of examples, including the failed multimillion-dollar Hope Bridge, and the $1B Kato School that started to crumble soon after construction.
“Whatever they are doing at the University, it is not working. It leaves a whole lot to be desired. Engineering evolves, and they don’t seem to understand that. They keep doing the same thing they’ve been doing since the black and white days,” the Managing Director of Ceres Ground Structures Engineering Consultants said.
He went further to reason, “These cell phones these days have more power than many of the computers that we used to use. With how the world is today, there are always better and more effective ways to do things.”
According to the veteran engineer who studied mostly overseas, every one of the engineers employed by his company was required to undergo intense training, which goes beyond the “outdated” courses being offered at the premier tertiary education institution in the country.
“We hire people who the university certifies as being knowledgeable in, for example, geotechnical engineering, and the only thing they can tell us when you interview them, is about moisture content and unit weight, which is nothing compared to what is needed,” Ceres said.
He is of the view that the university needs to do more in ensuring that its students are analytical thinkers.
“An engineer, in the true sense, is somebody trained to solve problems, but most of the engineers working on some of these big government projects have not been doing that. That is why you see government always spending more money to fix these things.”
Ceres made specific mention of the crooked $350M Hope Canal Bridge, one of the three main components of the $3.6B Northern Relief Channel constructed at Hope/Dochfour, East Coast Demerara.
The approaches to the both the eastern and western ends of the bridge began sinking less than four years after its commissioning. It now has to be remedied at the cost of an additional $46.6M.
Ceres is of the view that much of the incompetent works being delivered to government, and by extension, taxpayers, is due to more ignorance than maliciousness.
“We have a lot of people who just tell themselves that they know everything, so they don’t believe in trying to do things like question the answers they are given,” Ceres stated, citing the need for Guyanese to embark on behavioural changes.
“I say this from experience. Ask some of these professionals when last they read a book pertaining to their field, and they will tell you that they haven’t done so since they graduated from the University of Guyana, so the mindset, too, has got to change.”
Ceres is urging students not to depend solely on the courses being offered at the University of Guyana, regardless of what profession they are pursuing.
“The basis of an education is not what you are taught, but what you can teach yourself,” he said.

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