That, my dear Blacksheep, is a fascinating and very valid point - both for the reasons you make, and also that it would certainly be very helpful for future professional pilots to have a good understanding of the issues and rationale behind maintenance planning.
Not having formally studied the academics of this myself to a particularly high level, can you suggest a good reference or textbook one might use as the basis for such a course within a more general BEng or MEng?
Something like this?
And am I right in thinking that you DON'T mean a course like
this? (excellent 'though I'm sure it is). You mean the academic subject of planning, constructing, and making as efficient (from time, cost and safety viewpoints) as possible aircraft maintenance and inspection practices?
G