NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AT ISIB, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM François Tondeur Institut Supérieur Industriel de Bruxelles, Haute Ecole P.-H. Spaak, Brussels, Belgium 1. THE BOLOGNA PROCESS IN THE FRENCH PART OF BELGIUM The Belgian educational system is completely split, according to the language, between the north (Dutch-speaking) and the south (French-speaking). This paragraph only concerns the French side. The legal framework of the adaptation of the higher education system to the Bologna guidelines has been voted early in 2004 and will replace, year after year, the old system, starting with the first year of Bachelor in the academic year 2004-2005. The Bachelor degree is obtained after 3 years (180 credits) or more. Academic Bachelor studies prepare to the Masters level, whereas professional Bachelor studies directly give an access to the work market. The Masters degree is most generally organised in 2 years (120 credits) with a few exceptions of shorter (1 year) or longer curricula. Complementary Masters accessible to the students after a first Master degree may be organised in one year or more in a limited number of fields, especially in medicine. The doctorate degree is organised in 3 years, and may only be organised by three academies grouped around the main 3 universities (Brussels, Liège, Louvain-la-Neuve). Although some coordination of the Bachelor and Masters studies by the academies is also expected in the future, this is not yet organised by the present law, and nearly 50 independent institutions still coexist at this level, by far too many for a bit more than 4 million inhabitants. A grouping process into poles has been initiated, but did not yet result in a true academic coordination. 2. ENGINEERING STUDIES IN BELGIUM Two different diplomas exist in Belgium for engineers: civil engineers and industrial engineers. Both degrees are at the Masters level, organised in 3+2 years. Civil engineers are more oriented to engineering conception, whereas industrial engineers are more oriented to engineering application. Although large parts of the formation are quite similar, some courses given to future civil engineers may require a stronger mathematical and theoretical background, whereas future industrial engineers spend more time (more than 20 weeks) for internship in the industry or in an external laboratory. 3. ENGINEERING STUDIES AT ISIB, BRUSSELS ISIB, the Institut Supérieur Industriel de Bruxelles, is a part of the «Haute Ecole Paul-Henri Spaak», which is member of the Brussels University Pole. The pole includes the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and five other smaller institutions, with a total of approximately 30000 students. ISIB organises Bachelor and Masters degrees in industrial engineering. Most of the Bachelor degree (approx. 140 credits) is a general engineering formation, but some specialisation is introduced in the third year. The Masters degree is specialised, although a few courses are still common to all sections (mostly management and similar topics). The last semester is fully devoted to an internship, during which the Masters thesis can be developed. ISIB organises Masters degrees in 6 specialities: electricity, electronics, computer science, mechanics, chemistry, physical and nuclear engineering.
4. NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING IN BELGIUM The last 15 years have seen a drastic reduction of the offer of education in nuclear and radiological engineering in Belgium. At the time being, apart for some optional courses here and there, and some short training sessions, subsist the following : - as the main Masters degree : (a) ULB includes a nuclear specialisation for civil engineers (3+2) in physical engineering; (b) ISIB has a specialisation for industrial engineers (3+2) in physical and nuclear engineering; (c) the Hogeschool Limburg proposes specialisations in nuclear technology and in nuclear chemistry for industrial engineers (3+1) - as a complementary Masters degree: (d) a cooperation of several universities proposes the BNEN program (1 year), given in English, and oriented to the needs of the nuclear energy industry, for engineers without any previous specialisation in the field; (e) ULB also proposes a 1-year complementary Masters (in French) for engineers already trained in the nuclear field; (f) several universities organise a complementary Masters in radiation physics in 2 years oriented to the medical sector (1 year of courses + 1 year of internship in a hospital). 5. MASTERS IN PHYSICAL AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AT ISIB The specialisation in physical and nuclear engineering at ISIB has evolved from a previous nuclear energy section that had to enlarge its scope to stay attractive. Although some effort is made to develop new aspects (modern optics, material physics), the formation is still largely focused on topics that have a link with nuclear or radiation technologies. The program, including the specialised courses introduced at the bachelor level, is given here. (for the full Bachelor program in French, see our Website http://www.isib.be/cont_ens/cont_ens.htm).note that the first year of this new masters program will be first organised in 2007, the second year in 2008, and that some details might still be changed. The program has left some space for an unspecified specialised module that could be taken in another institution or given by an invited professor. MASTERS INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER IN PHYSICAL AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING The Bachelor programme includes 138,5 ECTS of courses common to all specialities: Biology and Environment, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, Electricity, Electronics, Mechanics, Fluid mechanics, Material Science, Thermodynamics, Electro techniques, Electronics, Graphical techniques, information techniques, communication, foreign language, social and economic management, methodology. ECTS BACHELOR COURSES SPECIFIC TO THE PHYSICAL AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING second year (optional) Physics 3,5 Nuclear Physics 2,5 Chemistry 2,5 third year (compulsory) project 4,5 automation 3,5 physical chemistry 2,5 physics 4 applied physics 2,5 nuclear and radiation physics 6 internship 10
MASTERS COURSES IN PHYSICAL AND NUCLEAR ENGINEERING common courses Environmental aspects of production techniques 2,5 foreign language 2 Project management 2,5 company management 3,5 human sciences 3,5 specific courses applied mathematics 4 computer science 5 industrial thermodynamics 2 project 7,5 automation 3,5 physical chemistry 2,5 physics 2,5 applied physics 5 nuclear and radiation physics 2,5 industrial applications of radiations 2,5 Radiochemistry, radiation protection 7,5 nuclear engineering 7,5 material physics 5 nuclear materials 5 nuclear measurements 4 energy 2,5 radioecology and waste management 2,5 external module 5 internship 10 Masters thesis 20 A strong point of ISIB in the nuclear/radiological field is the good connection with the companies active in the field and with the nuclear research centre in Mol, which allows to organise efficiently the last year internship, but also a training on the BR1 reactor in Mol. We also have opportunities to send our students to the training simulator of a nuclear power plant.isib is also active in radiation protection training for hospital workers and for radiation protection experts. 6. International cooperation of ISIB in nuclear engineering education International cooperation for education is till now organised at ISIB mostly in the framework of European projects, Erasmus and other. The section of physical and nuclear engineering has exchange agreements with the Polytechnical University in Valencia (Spain) and the Czech Technical University in Prague (Czech Republic) that include student and staff exchanges. ISIB has coordinated an Erasmus intensive programme on Practical approach to nuclear techniques (PAN), organised in 2002,2003 and 2004. This 2-week course was held twice in CTU Prague, the third edition being organised in Belgium by ISIB with the help of SCK-CEN, IRMM, and ULg. A fourth course was held in 2005 in Prague, without European support. A new IP project called Stimulation of Practical Expertise in RAdiation and Nuclear SAfety (SPERANSA) is submitted for 2006 by CTU Prague. The scope is partially redirected to nuclear/radiation safety, by developing the analysis of safety aspects related to the techniques used in the exercises. It should be first organised in Aachen, with the cooperation of SCK-CEN Mol, IRMM Geel and FZ Juelich.
7. Research projects and cooperation at ISIB In the recent years, research projects in the nuclear field have been developed on different subjects: - natural radioactivity, in particular indoor radon : measurement campaigns, relation with geology, risk mapping; cooperations on particular aspects with the Polytechnical Faculty in Mons, the Free University in Brussels ULB, the Public Health Scientific Institute in Brussels, the University of Luxembourg. - physical methods in archeometry: we are involved in a cooperation group gathering several different methods: PIXE, Raman spectrometry, SEM, XRFA, TL,, the last two methods being developed at ISIB. The cooperation involves the University of Liège, the Royal Military Academy, the Flemish Free University in Brussels VUB, and several museums. - Simulation and tests of radiation measurements, applied to medical dosimetry and other applications - Use of radioactive tracers for the automotive industry 8. Needs for the future In the last ten years, the evolution of several factors determining the life of our group and section has been negative: - (a) financial constraints : the general context is that the grant per student received from the state is decreasing - (b) low popularity of the nuclear field: few students choose this speciality, despite very good job perspectives - (c) ageing professors, but those who retire are not replaced because of (a) and (b) - (d) optional specialisations to nuclear energy, instrumentation, or chemistry have been suppressed - (e) the size of the teaching and research group, that was never big, is now strongly subcritical - (f) increasing difficulty to maintain the expertise in all needed fields and to develop new expertise - (g) ageing laboratory equipment, once very good (1980), but now old, and difficulty to acquire new equipment, especially if big Apart from a radical change in (a) and/or (b), the survival of this formation cannot be guaranteed in the medium term (5-10 years) in the present context. Several proposals are made to increase our chances. All of them need to find partners, in Belgium or abroad. A first one is to develop specialised modules that would also be of interest also for the industry, and might hopefully be self-sustaining. A second proposal is to increase the coordination with other Belgian universities that are indeed facing the same kind of problems. This is already on the way (slowly) with ULB, and other opportunities exist Belgium is small, and distances are never big. Up to now, the cooperation mostly concerns the mutual access to specialised equipments. The organisation of common courses should be examines in the future. A third option is to share expertise and equipment at the European level. This may include : - the organisation of teaching modules common to several universities, with a common teaching material. Depending on the costs, the module could be organised with staff exchange (the specialist goes in each foreign institution to give the course) or student exchange (the course is organised in one institution for all students), or a mixture of both.
- The organisation of international intensive courses with access to specialised equipment for practical work, each institution being able then to concentrate its investment in a specialised domain (often connected to its research activity), as it may find elsewhere what is missing at home. Whatever the cooperation, it will need a good flexibility in the organisation of the academic calendar. While everybody has to change its organisation to adapt to the Bologna constraints, there are probably good opportunities to more systematically include in the curricula and the calendar the possible external modules.