Rock Mechanics 4, 135--138 (1972)

© by Springer-Verlag 1972

The Teaching of Rock Mechanics

By
E. Hoek

This paper is based upon a brief report prepared by the author for the
International Society for Rock Mechanics Commission on the Teaching of
Rock Mechanics. The views expressed are those of the author and not
necessarily those of the Society.

The following questions are examined:

(a) Is the present enrollment in rock mechanics courses and the number of
baccalaureates or students with higher degrees that have completed
a significant part of their training in rock mechanics sufficient to meet
present needs?
(b) On the basis of reports prepared by t h e Organisation for Economic
Development and Co-operation and the American National Academy
of Sciences dealing with the future demands and other subsurface ex-
cavations, will the enrollment projected over the next 10 years be suffi-
cient to meet anticipated requirements?
(c) Are present rock mechanics courses objective and directed towards
practical engineering phases of rock mechanics?
(d) If the projected future enrollment does not seem adequate to meet
demands, what can be done to stimulate interest in this engineering
discipline?
In seeking to answer these questions the author has corresponded with
a number of rock mechat~ics educators and has discussed the teaching of
rock mechanics with a large number of industrial engineers and geologists
around the world. The views of these persons, as interpreted by the author,
are summarised as follows:

(a) Is the enrollment in rock mechanics sufficient to meet present needs?

The consensus of opinion amongst those with whom this question was
discussed was that enrollment in rock mechanics course is inadequate for
both present requirements and requirements over the next ten years. These
opinions are, however, invariably qualified by the statement that the present
Rock Mechanics, Vol. 4/3 10
136 E. H o e k :

tendency to produce specialists in the narrow field of rock mechanics is un-

acceptable and will do more harm than good if this trend is allowed to
continue.
Any practical excavation, slope or foundation problem involves an
intimate mixture of soil and rock and the properties of these materials are
controlled by the geological history to which they have been subjected and
the geological and climatic conditions in which they exist. Consequently,
the tendency to teach rock mechanics as a subject which is independent of
both soil mechanics and engineering or structural geology is both meaning-
less and wasteful of the potential of the students being taught.
The current situation in rock mechanics can be compared to a hypo-
thetical example in which the medical profession was suddenly to find itself
without general practitioners, but with an abundance of specialist physicians.
Unless these specialists were themselves to revert to general practice, they
would very soon find themselves with minimal contact with real problems
and the relevance of their activities would rapidly diminish. In rock mechan-
ics, we have produced too many narrowly based specialists and have not
adequately catered for the needs of mining and civil engineers who must
form the general practitioners of our profession by sound teaching at under-
graduate level. This has resulted in the situation which is very well summed
up by Professor Hugh T r o l l o p e of the James Cook University of North
Queensland: "In my view, enrollments in rock mechanics at the present
time are related to an open ended situation. This position is somewhat similar
to that which soil mechanics was in perhaps 15 or 20 years ago when the
growth of the subject was limited by the number of people actively engaged
in it. Hence, in the short term, I think that the present enrollment is inade-
quate although this might not be reflected in available jobs because employers
are not yet familiar with the benefits that such trained people can bring to
their operations."
In summary, therefore, the author suggests that the present enrollment
in rock mechanics is inadequate in terms of the actual problems which have
to be solved and the universities which persist in providing a narrow specialist
training in the subject, will find increasing difficulty in placing their students.

(b) Are present rock mechanics courses objective and directed towards
the engineering phases of rock mechanics?
This question has been answered in part by the discussion given above
but it may be relevant to ask whether, in view of the limited development
of the subject as a whole, there are enough teachers with the right balance
of theoretical and practical experience to cater for the number of courses
being offered or which should be offered in the future. The author's own
view is that whereas ten years ago the answer would very definitely have
been no, the situation is rapidly changing and an encouraging number of
highly qualified young men who have devoted their entire professional careers
to the subject are now becoming available and will make excellent teachers
in the years to come.
 The Teaching of Rock Mechanics 137

A broader question is whether the current tendency to teach rock

mechanics as a self-contained discipline with only loose links with soil
mechanics and geology, is correct. One must obviously recognize that soil
mechanics is a well established branch of civil engineering and that changes
to existing departmental structures are not easily made and are not always
desirable. On the other hand, the nature of the problems which require
solution is such that a sound working knowledge of both geology and soil
mechanics is invariably required and one has to ask whether a more formal
association between the three disciplines is not desirable.
At some universities, students attending postgraduate course in rock
mechanics, soil mechanics or engineering geology are required to complete
substantial courses of lectures and laboratory work in both of the other
disciplines for which they are not specifically registered and this may be
a reasonable solution for universities with well established departmental
structures. On the other hand, the author suggests that any new moves to
establish teaching facilities in this field should aim at a departmental struc-
ture in which all three disciplines of soil mechanics, rock mechanics and
engineering geology are combined into one unit. The author foresees a grow-
ing tendency for the International Societies dealing with these three dis-
ciplines to come together for discussions and conferences and perhaps ulti-
mately to amalgamate into an international version of what has been achieved
in Australia by the formation of the Australian Geomechanics Society. Cer-
tainly any undergraduate courses in these subjects are only justified if all
three disciplines are combined into a single unit.

(c) What can be done to increase interest in this discipline?

As in any marketing situation, interest in the product and the incentive
to produce a better product is invariably controlled by consumer reaction.
Present consumer reaction to rock mechanics is very poor and the most
prevalent reasons are:
(i) A mining or civil engineering company with a rock mechanics prob-
lem is unaware of the existence of the subject of rock mechanics or is un-
aware of the possible source of information or assistance.
(ii) Having decided to investigate a problem, a company has become
completely disillusioned by the lack of "practical" solutions. They will
complain that all textbooks and papers which were consulted dealt with
idealised theoretical solutions and that no information appeared to be
available which permitted them to actually evaluate their problem. If the
company has hired a rock mechanics specialist, they are frequently dissatis-
fied with the poor return on investment. (Lest the impression be given that
deficiencies are entirely on the side of the rock engineer, it must be stated
that there are a number of individuals and companies which have provided
and will continue to provide an outstanding service. A major source of diffi-
culty from the rock engineering point of view is getting a company to specify
precisely what problems it wants investigated.)
10"
138 E. H o e k : The Teaching of Rock Mechanics

(iii) Once that company has been convinced that there are tangible
financial benefits to be gained from the application of rock mechanics to its
problems, there are relatively few companies that can provide a comprehen-
sive service to satisfy this need.
Many of the present problems can be traced directly to poor communi-
cation and the fact that the consumer - - the practical mining or civil engineer
in the field - - is not able to obtain a concise and rational assessment of the
approach which he should adopt. The numerous conferences and symposia
in which the rock mechanics community indulges have little or no influence
on this consumer.
It must be recognized that many of the engineers currently in control of
large civil and mining operations have not had the benefit of any exposure
to rock mechanics during their university training and that to a certain ex-
tent this problem will be remedied by future generations of engineers. How-
ever, attracting these future engineers into the discipline depends on the
attractiveness of the profession which they will be entering and this in turn
is a function of the present market situation.
To continue the analogy with marketing, an obvious remedy lies in
advertising and, in the case of mechanics, the author believes that the Inter-
national Society and the universities must be far more outgoing in their
approach to the subject and must aim to make the non-specialist geologist
or engineer feel that there is some benefit for him or for his company in the
subject. Much can be achieved by making a conscious effort to communi-
cate with these non-specialists through general lectures or perhaps through
papers in non-specialist journals or even through films and the International
Society for Rock Mechanics could serve a useful purpose by encouraging
teachers to take this outward view and to operate outside the narrow con-
fines of their own university environment.

Address of the author: E. H oek, Professor of Rock Mechanics, Imperial

College of Science and Technology, London, Great Britain.