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MINERALS INDUSTRY EDUCATION AND TRAINING II
curriculum must include the engineering application of these basic sciences
to the design, analysis, and control of chemical, physical, and/or biological
processes, including the hazards associated with these processes.
2. Faculty
Nothing Stated
With all of these outcome requirements, programs mineral processing and
extractive metallurgy must be broad and diverse to include the necessary
content. There is little space for inclusion of additional electives.
Additional Challenges
The minerals industry has attracted negative publicity over the last 30 years
and this has impacted on Minerals Processing education. Some impacts:
National Science Foundation (NSF) stops granting mineral processing
and extractive metallurgy research
Most universities eliminate Mining and Metallurgical Engineering
programs
Others (continue to) question why they have a “School of Mines”
The surviving schools of mines in the USA circa 2000 are the Colorado
School of Mines, South Dakota School of Mines and Montana Tech.
Universities use research to meet bottom line and become “Pro-Material”
advocates. Other survival strategies used by the schools that are left
include:
Rename courses (e.g., Mineral Processing becomes Particulate
Processing)
Change program names (e.g., Metallurgical & Materials Engineering)
Get creative with research (e.g., energy, recycling and waste/water
treatment)
In summary, what does a school need to do to survive?
Accreditation requires input from constituents as part of assessment
process, and program coordinators need to pay attention to all:
Meeting the Challenges of a
152 Section 4
Changing World
