A systems thinking approach to collaborations for capacity building and sustainability in engineering education

The general decline in the retention of professionally qualified engineers in academia and industry vary from country to country and has been attributed to different reasons for industrialized and industrializing states. This paper focuses on the outcome from a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa, aimed at enriching engineering education through fostering strong links between industry and academia. A systems thinking model was developed to address the weaknesses and enhance the successes of the RAEng intervention in order to build capacity for sustainability in engineering education. The model was developed and based at the University of Zimbabwe as the hub, collaborating with 6 other regional universities. This paper advocates for scaling up the largely successful initiative while capitalizing on experiences and collaborations with institutions from the United Kingdom (UK) and envisaged partnerships with other institutions from Europe.