Strategies to improve engineering retention

Carnegie, Dale A.; Watterson, Craig; Browne, Will N.; Mackay, James; Lock, Mel; Williams, John; Forret, Michael

doi:10.1109/educon.2012.6201030

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Students scoring E grades (<40%) dominate the left hand responses. Student focus groups [9] indicated that when students begin failing university assessments, a common reaction is for them to believe it is just because they have been a bit lazy (because it did not take much work to get an "Achieved" at secondary school). The students very often believe that like secondary school, such initial laziness is not a problem and that they will be able to catch up later in the year.…”

Section: Retention Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Improving retention rates at first year for modern engineering students

Carnegie

Watterson

2013

Proceedings of 2013 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

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Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) is a relatively new provider of engineering in the "modern" specialisations of electronics, networking and software. As a professional degree with essentially open entry, we have historically retained only 43% of our first year enrolments. Government directives to increase the number of engineering graduates coupled with financial penalties for poor course and degree completion have led VUW to prioritize increasing this first year retention rate.Taking into account academic preparedness, expectational issues and other contributing factors we present a number of initiatives that have increased student engagement and first year grades. Whilst several of these initiatives are still being developed, immediate results indicate an improvement in student satisfaction and an improving retention result.

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Section: Retention Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Improving retention rates at first year for modern engineering students

Carnegie

Watterson

2013

Proceedings of 2013 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

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“…To investigate student issues more holistically, we contracted trained evaluators external to VUW from the Centre of Science and Technology Education Research (CSTER) [7]. This center conducted a series of Focus Group interviews with engineering students of varying years.…”

Section: Our Investigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors that affect the design of a successful engineering programme: A case study

Carnegie

Browne

2014

2014 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

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We established an engineering degree utilising existing science and mathematics courses where possible in order to minimise the resource requirements. After 7 years of running this degree, research indicated dissatisfaction by some students regarding the science, and in particular, mathematics component of the programme. We also uncovered numerous non-academic issues that contributed to student disengagement from the degree. This paper outlines the evolution of an engineering degree from its inception to its current form. This evolution is informed by student surveys, focus groups, interviews, and best practice. The result has been a significant change to the foundation engineering course, the creation of new engineering courses, the appointment of a pastoral support agent, the growing of a student engineering culture and the redevelopment and re-emphasising of first year mathematics.

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What surveys and interviews tell us

Watterson

Carnegie

2014

2014 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

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Strategies to improve engineering retention

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

Improving retention rates at first year for modern engineering students

Improving retention rates at first year for modern engineering students

Factors that affect the design of a successful engineering programme: A case study

What surveys and interviews tell us

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