Evaluating the Educational Impact of the Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII)’s Novel 3S Approach

The Gulf Nuclear Energy Infrastructure Institute (GNEII) aims to develop a responsible nuclear energy culture and institutionalize key nuclear energy safety, safeguards and security (‘3S’) and nonproliferation norms in the future decision-makers of the Gulf-region nuclear power programs. During its first 6 years of operations, GNEII conducted an annual, semester-long professional development Fundamentals Course based on a novel integrated nuclear energy 3S curriculum that produced 99 graduates from five Gulf-region countries. Hosted at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, GNEII’s underlying educational paradigm couples the interaction of technical and operational elements with the complexity of real-world challenges to responsible nuclear energy programs. In support of GNEII’s vision to be a regional capability for human resource development for peaceful nuclear power programs, the institute’s key implementers conducted an analysis of its educational impact. First, the utility and benefit of GNEII’s novel, integrated 3S (safety, security and safeguards) curriculum is evaluated in terms of its ability to improve the learning process. In-course weekly evaluations of instructional aptitude, course material appropriateness and overall topic effectiveness are compared from the 2011 and 2016 Course Fellows to address this question. Second, the topical breadth, analytical sophistication and increasing use of the GNEII Fundamentals Course Capstone projects are evaluated as possible evidence of the institute’s impact. Content analysis, focused on the academic maturity and range of research topics, is conducted on the 45 GNEII Fundamentals Course Capstone projects to address this question. Analysis of the weekly topic evaluation data indicates a sustained utility and benefit of GNEII’s novel 3S curriculum, whereas analysis of the capstone project data describes how the increasing sophistication of research conducted demonstrates GNEII’s educational impact. Ultimately, these data suggest that GNEII’s educational approach is developing an internationally-knowledgeable, regional cadre of nuclear professionals with whom the world can discuss (and develop solutions for) safety, security and safeguards challenges to global nuclear energy expansion.