2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Anniversaries are fitting times for reflection, so it seems appropriate on the 70th anniversary of the Grinter Report to revisit that document and consider its continuing influence on the course of engineering education. By many accounts, the Grinter Report achieved an impact that is seldom the result of committee reports, for it seems to have been the catalyst for a transformation of engineering education from practical and hands-on to the scientific education which is ubiquitous to this day. This has led to the identification of the Grinter Report with these changes and the perception that it recommended a one-size-fits-all curriculum that was impractical and inflexible. This paper will reexamine the report and show how it considers many of the same problems we are still debating today. A case for reconsidering the Grinter Report will be made through three points. 1) The current engineering curriculum is at most superficially related to the Grinter Report. It will be argued that curricular changes rarely coincided with the intentions of the report and were rather motivated by other factors. 2) The Grinter Report focuses on principles of engineering education, not a particular curriculum. It will be shown that these principles are built on a long tradition of liberal education. 3) While the Grinter Report is often critiqued as advocating an impersonal, one-size-fits-all education, the report emphasizes the great need to recognize the personal needs of both faculty and students. This appeal aligns well with the aspirations of many for an engineering education that is both true intellectually, and good for the person.