Telecommunications Engineering major

UTS major code: 07
UAC code: 603065
Testamur title: Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications Engineering
Diploma in Engineering Practice
Total credit points: 204

Telecommunications is a rapidly expanding industry, and Sydney has the status of a global telecommunications hub. Enterprises covering the complete spectrum from large multinationals to small home businesses have recognised the critical role that effective use of communications and information technologies plays in maintaining competitiveness.

As in any rapidly expanding field, there is strong demand in the telecommunications industry for people with entry-level skills. These include familiarity with the products available and the ability to optimise the network interfaces of equipment at a software and hardware level. Typical tasks are those of local-level system design, system integration and system management, network security management, and restoration of service in the event of a fault. Training courses are offered by public and private providers to produce the skilled personnel needed; and industry, with its understandable focus on addressing immediate skill shortages, offers premium salaries. However, these skills are not the skills of engineers, but of technicians or technologists. Neither the individuals concerned, nor our society, are properly served by relying exclusively on such short-term strategies.

Telecommunications technology has the potential to make a major contribution to the achievement of a more intelligent, socially just and sustainable society. This cannot happen unless the community as a whole is able to effectively influence the manner in which the technology is developed, financed and deployed. This in turn needs broadly educated and socially aware technical experts who can stimulate and engage in community debate and in economic and business planning. The Telecommunications Engineering major at UTS is designed to develop these characteristics, and to attract able students with broadly based interests.

The subjects in the major are designed to link with the core and the Engineering Practice Program, and with the portfolio, to contribute progressively to professional formation over the 10 semesters of the course. An appreciation of concepts such as sustainability, ethical principles and technology assessment is developed by drawing out common themes illustrated in multiple case studies over multiple subjects. Competence in modelling, experimental methods, risk analysis, systems thinking, and mathematical analysis is developed alongside the personal effectiveness skills needed for employment. Many subjects engage the perspectives of other disciplines. The Capstone Project explores the complexity of balancing competing interests and requirements in order to find a design solution. The application of systems engineering methodology as one of the means of dealing with complexity is emphasised.

Information retrieval, writing, speaking and critical reading skills are valued, and comprehensive feedback and assistance are provided in their development.

Through a guided sequence of design challenges, students are encouraged to value their own intellectual resources and to gain the confidence to tackle complex and ill-defined problems. They are encouraged to become 'reflective practitioners', to critique their own work and the work of others, to take responsibility for their own learning, and to pose and answer their own questions.

Standard program

C = Core subject
EPP = Engineering Practice Program
FP = Fields of practice subject

Note: Engineering Internship shown in Semesters 4 and 8 is for illustration only.