This study aims to provide industrial perspectives on the current U.S. metal mining engineering education and areas for improvement. An online survey was designed to seek opinions from the U.S. mining industry. Findings indicated a shortage of qualified graduates from the current U.S. metal mining engineering education system. The qualifications that need to be improved include engineering sciences underlying mining methods, mining design experience, mining feasibility study, the connection between theory and practice, and understanding of the overall mining operation. The survey also identified future desired qualifications. The most desired ones include an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, and sufficient experience in the field. Respondents, regardless of the nature of their affiliated mining companies, unanimously recommended that collaborations between the industry and academia should be enhanced. The analysis of the results concluded with four recommendations: (1) involve more multiple stakeholders in reforming mining education programs, (2) reinforce field experiences as a key part of mining engineering education programs, (3) enhance a closer collaboration between academia and industry, and (4) integrate emerging technologies guided by pedagogical theories into new mining engineering curriculums.
Full-text paper:
Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (2023) 40:1041–1058, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-023-00782-6
