2003:30
Graduate engineers, yesterday, to day and tomorrow
Applicants to master´s programmes in engineering
The majority (83 per cent) of those who responded to this questionnaire said that their motive for applying for a master´s programme in engineering was the prospect of an interesting job. An overwhelming number also consider that they have attained this goal or are well on the way to doing so.
In order to open people´s eyes to engineering as a profession and encourage them to opt for master´s programmes in engineering, many of the respondents advocate initiatives in primary and upper-secondary schools - in particular more interesting teaching in the natural sciences and technology but also more information. Almost 70 per cent claim that more examples of engineers as role models are needed. There seems to be a dearth of good examples taken from the “world of civil engineering". Only 5 per cent state that media attention to engineers has influenced their choice of a master´s programme in engineering. Almost half were influenced by information from higher education institutions. The opinions of friends or parents also had significant impact on their decisions.
Between 1991 and 1994 an increasing proportion of individuals over the age of 25 have begun master´s programmes in engineering. However, the proportion of those entering directly from the upper-secondary school has not declined. One out of every five beginners belongs to this age group. The median age of beginners is one year higher for men than for women.
Recruitment to master´s programmes in engineering is still skewed. Women students and students from non-traditional backgrounds are still underrepresented in Sweden´s Institutes of Technology. The second group depend on the provision of adequate and reliable information and teaching from the schools if they are to have an equitable chance of opting for the engineering profession. Broader recruitment is required both in order to meet future demands for engineers and also to enable industry to reflect the diversity of the community.
The attitude of graduate engineers to their master´s programmes
As many as 87 per cent of the respondents consider that the contents of their programmes were good. A clear majority also believe that the teaching was planned appropriately. Where teaching methods are concerned, however, opinions differ, and negative assessments are in the majority. This may possibly be one area where development could take place.
A positive image is given of the way in which the programmes embodied the skills required on the labour market. Over 80 per cent of the graduates that responded consider that their programmes provide the necessary level of skill and that they lead to qualified positions.
Programmes and the labour market
One area where development is obviously required involves contacts with workplaces. Mutual communications between the labour market and master´s programmes in engineering need to be improved. Only 38 per cent considered that their contacts with the labour market during their programmes were good. The students need information about and preparation for the sectors that recruit graduate engineers. Industry would probably benefit from greater involvement in master´s programmes in engineering and their ongoing development and it is important for this involvement to continue even when the economy is sluggish.
All of the higher education institutions also need to cooperate with industry at a local and regional level to enable the development of the skills that are in actual demand. Workplace projects involving “real" tasks could be one method. Many engineering students on these master´s programmes express a need to develop the capacity to adopt an overall perspective. One of the features that distinguishes the learning situation from real workplaces is that in practice it is rarely possible to concentrate on one task at a time. Projects could be organised in which various tasks had to be integrated with each other.
Among graduate engineers, men clearly predominate in research and development and in construction. The proportion of women working as project managers is larger. About 30 per cent consider that their current occupation does not match the training they received. This either suggests that a master´s degree in engineering is attractive for various kinds of employers or that it is difficult for engineers to find positions that match their training.
Attitudes to the profession are overwhelmingly positive. On the whole graduate engineers describe their jobs as extrovert ones that allow great scope for personal development, influence and the assumption of responsibility. The time seems to be ripe to replace the stock image of the civil engineer as a “nerd" with a more up-to-date impression of a modern professional with expectations and a great deal of self-awareness.
Throughput
Many students taking master´s programmes in engineering leave without taking a degree. These can either be genuine drop-outs, who often quit in the early stages of programmes, or students who complete or almost complete programmes and fail to take a degree. Of those who have attained the entire 180 credit points awarded for the programmes, 10 per cent have not bothered to apply for a degree. Not all of those who have been awarded degrees consider that they play an important role, except when applying for their first position.
The proportion of students on master´s programmes in engineering awarded degrees is lower for the cohorts that began in the mid-1990s than for previous cohorts. Emphasising the importance of degrees - not least from an international perspective - should be a matter of concern on which the higher education institutions and industry could take joint action. One in three of those who dropped out of programmes claim that they did so because “the programme was too demanding". Almost half of the drop-outs state explicitly that they “made a mistake in choosing a programme that did not suit them". Few blame inadequacies in the programmes or in the teachers, or claim that information about the programmes was misleading. From this we can infer that drop-outs early in the programmes are not students with high expectations but rather those who would prefer the programmes to require less of them. Nearly 90 per cent of those who complete the programmes consider that they were demanding and at the same time 85 per cent feel that they were adequately prepared when they enrolled. One conclusion that can be drawn is that the level of the programmes is well adapted to their primary target group. Graduate engineers are highly educated. Many of them continue to study even after completion of the long master´s programme in engineering, women more so than men: 22 per cent of the women and 15 per cent of the men have undergone some other form of higher education after their programmes in engineering.
Comparisons with shorter engineering programmes
Few of those who have studied engineering have a clear understanding of the differences between a master´s programme in engineering and the shorter engineering programmes that are offered.
Discussions in connection with the establishment of the shorter programmes in engineering concerned the adaptation of these programmes to students with more varied educational backgrounds.1 This study has demonstrated that students on master´s programmes also come from an assortment of educational backgrounds in that they have acquired the qualifications needed for enrolment in a variety of ways. These include completion of an upper-secondary programme in technology, the natural sciences or some other upper-secondary programme as well as the technological foundation years offered in adult education or higher education institutions. As large a proportion as 13 per cent had experience from some other programme in higher education when they started their studies in engineering. Master´s programmes in engineering may perhaps need to adapt to these circumstances. Perhaps the term engineer could be used to define a broader category of professionals than is currently the case, which would lead to demands for greater breadth in the organisation and content of the programmes.
Two distinct conclusions can be drawn from comparisons between the responses from students taking shorter courses in engineering to questionnaire surveys and those from students on master´s programmes. Either the distinctive features of the two forms of programme should be enhanced so that they both acquire more explicit profiles or else they should evolve along similar patterns to merge into joint engineering programmes-differing in specialisation and length as is currently the pattern internationally.
A quality review of master´s programmes in engineering will be undertaken by the National Agency for Higher Education in 2005.
1. Matts Håstad 2002, Tekniskt sett, Högskoleverkets rapportserie 2003:27 R, Bilaga 4 (From a Technological Point of View. HSV report 2003:7 R, Appendix 4).
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