I wrote this since 2002 when the institution was trying to renew itself and play its role as the leading and oldest engineering school in Tunisia.
I had the chance to be Deputy Director and Director of Studies during 2003-2005 with Bahri Rezig as Director.
As a team, we were able to do much especially the creation of a new department since the bearth of ENIT. The new department is the fifth one and deals with TICs!
Intervention de Jalel Ezzine
Victor Hugo said:
"Une bonne action peut donc être une mauvaise action. Qui sauve le loup tue les brebis."
As you all understand the meaning of the above citation you will all agree with me that a more unified, coherent and sustainable vision for ENIT is required. It goes without saying, that this vision should include the three points (or objectives) proposed by the ongoing Brain Storming.
The vision for OUR ENIT should reposition our institution in its national and international (European) geo-academic as well as eco-industrial environments. Thus, this stipulates, at least, that our educational programs, be it in options and quality, be comparable to the international standards, in particular European ones. Therefore, in the long run, allowing our diplomas to be equivalent to European ones. Of course, this implicitly calls for a research program and activities comparable to the competitive European geo-academic research environment. In addition, these dynamics are bound to generate the much needed inner and outer synergisms to allow our institution to fully play its role in the economic and social development of our country.
This can only be so if ENIT as a educational and research institution is given all the needed and necessary instruments to fulfill its mission. Lets not forget that ENIT, as any other institution, is a microcosm that gets its strengths and/or weaknesses from its structure and people, and that its failures or (hopefully) successes is the failure or success of its people as well; thus working towards the TRUE success of ENIT is nothing short from OUR success, WE the people (faculty and administration.) of ENIT.
As a conclusion to this prelude, it goes without much argumentation, that fulfilling the above vision requires the apprehension not only of curricula and adaptation of the latter to semesters, but the restructuring and redesign of a triad made out of: i) Academic programs, ii) Administration and last but not least iii) Infrastructure. You will find out quickly that this triad is a must for the points already proposed for this forum; in fact academia follows from the changes and adaptation of graduate undergraduate programs, administration reform and restructuring is needed to manage the ever growing graduate and research labs, and infrastructure enhancement is needed to accommodate the tsunami of students!
VISION: ENIT Renaissance,
ENIT a modern competitive educational and research institution with a strong commitment to be a major player in the national economic and social developments.
My Proposal: nothing but a proposal
- i) Academic: Departments restructuring:
- GE should become Information Technology Dept. It should have, at least the following options: Informatics, communication, computer engineering. The "electrotechnique" will be best at the present ME -wait and see!-
- GM should become Mechatronics Dept. (this is the modern name for electromechanical plus computer
control depts.) It should have at least the following options:
Mechatronics, power systems/electrotechnique , mechanical eng., material eng.
- GI should become Systems Engineering Dept. It should have at least the following options:
Industrial eng., Financial eng., Management, Systems and Control eng.
- GC should become Civil and Environmental Eng. Dept. It should have at least the following options:
Building and construction, city planning, transportation eng., environmental eng.
- ii) Administration: A new and appropriate "organigramme":
- Doctoral studies and Research Directorate,
- Continuing Education Directorate,
- etc.
PS: I do have an organnigramme I designed with the help of others since 96. Those interested are welcome to take a look at it; it could be a starting point.
iii) Infrastructure: New buildings!
- La Tour de l'ENIT; Location: Football stadium. It should house all labs and faculty offices with the necessary common infrastructure.
- Evacuation and adaptation of all present labs in order to make space for the new epts/options/students!
- A professional intranet for education and research.
- A Library with all needed online access to educational and research resources.
- Computational resources for all.
- etc.
The above are ideas I did share since few years ago with fellow ENIT faculty. It is nothing but a sketch that can be used as a start for our creativity to design and create the new ENIT. It is a long process, and thus will require a long, medium and short terms strategies and action plans. I'll be more than happy to elaborate on some of the points introduced above, for I have to stop this already very long contribution!
I finally close with the following recommendations in order to succeed in our mission and be a successful team:
1- We should come up with an explicit, shared goal that can be achieved only through collaboration,
2- A climate of trust, openness, and honest communication,
3- A sense of belonging, respect, and mutual support,
4- Respect for diversity as an asset,
5- Skills for creativity, conflict resolution, consensus,
6- Desire for continuous improvement and willingness to take risks,
7- Ability to coordinate efforts and share leadership.
Best Regards to all, and Best of Lucks to all of us and ENIT :) ..
Jelel.
