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First, the hours needed to get a degree is 21 to 30 hours needed to become introduced to a field of engineering. Second, professors need to have field experience in engineering. Example, I have over 50 years of experience in pavement engineering. The Academics have been pushing mechanistic empirical design. The problem with performance based design is that there are too many variables. The solution is to use a 3D Finite Element System to determine the critical stresses and strains under the critical loading conditions & use laboratory testing of the proposed pavement layer materials to determine there limitations under various environmental conditions and both static and dynamic loading.
Case in point. China built a high speed rail system to Europe using the foundation requirements of heavy rail loadings. The high frequency loadings of the high speed trains caused the subgrade to move upwards and ruin the integrity of the ballast.