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The Structural Engineer, Volume 60, Issue 10, 1982
Mr Alfred Goldstein (F) (R. Travers Morgan & Partners): As a supporter of the KISS principle (‘keep it simple, stupid’), I can agree with Mr Taylor’s general direction, but I would not go as far as he. I can also agree with Mr Sunley’s view that BSI is trying to do too much. I cannot agree, however, that those drafting these documents should do what is necessary without consideration of the future user.
The Membership (Part 3) examination papers are set by corporate members with many years' practical experience of structural engineering; the questions themselves are invariably based on actual projects. The work of candidates is marked by younger members who, while having acquired extensive professional experience, can nonetheless remember the trauma of tackling a Part 3 examination question. Both Chief and Marking Examiners hope to award every candidate a passmark, but they are aware of their duty to the Institution and to the public at large. Each knows that a chartered structural engineer must have an ability to design safely and economically and a facility to communicate design intentions. Thus Part 3 questions are framed to give every candidate an opportunity of demonstrating these essentials for a professional career.
Mr G. E. Bratchell (F) (NCL Consulting Engineers): When the paper ‘Teaching towards an improved understanding of structural behaviour’ appeared in 1977, I felt that the people responsible for teaching engineering were beginning to respond to an undercurrent of concern felt by practitioners (e.g. consulting engineers and contractors) that the products of universities were becoming more highly skilled as analysts but less able to achieve a feeling for general engineering behaviour. The effects of this were the production of structural designs with meticulously designed elements but with a tendency to suffer from weaknesses attributable to lack of understanding of the behaviour of the structure as a whole and, increasingly, the interactive behaviour of the foundation soils and other environmental effects.