ABSTRACT
Agricultural engineering (AgEng) is a well-established academic discipline and profession in Africa. Back in the 1970s–1980s, student enrolments boomed, but in recent times, interest in AgEng degree programmes has waned and there is concern about growing and sustaining agricultural engineering in Africa. Despite efforts to reform the curriculum and change the name, the problems remain. To address this problem, stakeholder engagements are necessary, including among academia, students, industry, and policy makers. In this chapter, we report the findings of a study aimed at assessing the perceptions of AgEng undergraduate students in Africa towards agricultural engineering education. A web-based/online survey of students enrolled in five universities in East, West, and Southern Africa, showed that AgEng was not the first choice of most respondents (58%), and among these, a high majority (71%) had chosen other engineering disciplines, followed by medicine and related health sciences. Very few students (14.74%) considered overall public understanding of AgEng to be very good or excellent. Mechanisation was identified as the top-ranking key priority impact area for AgEng in transforming Africa's agri-food systems, while agricultural machinery management was ranked highest among the skills required to succeed in the workplace. To grow AgEng in Africa, stud ents recommended that efforts should focus on improving public awareness and understanding of AgEng education, enlightening fresh students about the discipline and what to expect during their study, enhancing the experiential learning component, and taking other actions to improve the job prospects, including changing the name.
