Origins of the issues: Theory versus practice, industrial participation, the role of the humanities, and four versus more years are the issues examined

Technical obsolescence and poor communication skills - the major educational concerns of today's electrical engineer - are far from new issues. They reflect the century-old problem in engineering education: how to provide both a professional and a general education in the “liberal science” undergraduate curriculum of four years. Educators and engineers recognize it as the distinguishing feature between engineering education and professional training in law and medicine. But the problem has been especially apparent in electrical engineering because the vast changes in electrotechnology since the 1880s have continually upset the balance between the electrical engineer's professional and general education. Educators have continually wrestled with such issues as theoretical versus practical training, industrial involvement in education, the value of courses in the humanities and social sciences, and the adequacy of a four-year curriculum.