A number of mechanical engineering courses in the British Isles were reviewed and the literature was scanned for the different views and criticism of the available teaching systems. A survey of the opinions of engineers in Ireland about the academic engineering education which they had received was earned out by using a mail questionnaire formulated to obtain information about the industrial training component of the education process and the relevance of the ancillary and basic subjects 425 IEI members returned back the questionnaire, of which 282 member were mechanical engineers, and 70 I Mech E have also responded. This makes up 28% response rate. The respondents were from different age groups, courses backgrounds and occupying different jobs The majority of the respondents were satisfied with the education they received in general and they believe that it helped them in performing current duties. However, a large proportion of the respondents (49%) expressed their views on some weaknesses in the education process, among the important were 1) Some of the Subjects were not entirely relevant, 2) Absence of adequate industrial training schemes. The technical knowledge acquired by the engineers during their courses was the most important aspect they have gained from the university and decision making abilities and skills were of secondary importance in the courses of study. The responses of the sample population to the enquiries about the relevance and importance of the different subjects they learned at the university to their current duties indicated a significantly high degree of importance of computing, design and strength of materials among all of the groups surveyed However, other subjects were rated differently by the various generations of engineers. Those who graduated within last 25 years gave usually a slightly higher rating to all the subjects than other groups, the only significant exception was ergonomic subject which received a very low rating from the older generation. Though few respondents were graduated from sandwich courses, the sample population was strongly m favour of cooperative education.