The pace of change in engineering education is “glacial” and must accelerate greatly for American engineers to compete economically and solve society’s pressing problems, writes James J. Duderstadt, a leading advocate of change, in a new report.

In particular, engineers should receive a liberal-arts education as undergraduates and then pursue graduate degrees as a standard route into the profession, says Mr. Duderstadt, a president emeritus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He released the report, “Engineering for a Changing World: A Roadmap to the Future of Engineering Practice, Research, and Education,” last week.

Mr. Duderstadt has helped draw attention to engineering education as a member of the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education and as the lead author of a 2005 National Research Council report on engineering research. In an interview, he described his own report as a synthesis of those and other studies of the topic. Some universities have taken steps toward some of his recommended goals, but he said he wanted to “add a shoulder to that and push.” —Jeffrey Brainard