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Current educational research demonstrates the importance of equipping students to be active participants in their own learning. However, more work is needed to provide students with the metacognitive skills necessary to engage in Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). Feedback is a crucial component of the learning process and can be used by students to develop these skills but remains a source of dissatisfaction for students and educators. We contend that this is a result of a gap in students' understanding of the feedback process and the lack of dialogue between students and educators. This paper presents a methodology to conduct a feedback workshop as a means to improve the feedback experience while equipping students with the metacognitive skills needed to facilitate SRL. The methodology was evaluated in four workshops conducted with students from engineering and business at a university in the United Kingdom. In each workshop (excluding the pilot) students were requested to complete pre and post-workshop questionnaires and there was also opportunity for group discussion and reflection. Results demonstrate the potential benefits of such workshops in deepening the student understanding of the process and use of feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to explore students' experiences of support mechanisms that support their wellbeing on an engineering degree programme at a research-intensive higher education institution and understand how theory relates to practice. This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach involving student survey responses (N = 173), interviews with 16 students and focus groups. Kahu and Nelson's conceptual framework was used as a lens through which to explore student support mechanisms. Preliminary data analysis indicates that the intense workload adversely affects students as do some of the interactions they have with personal tutors and their peers. Our findings suggest that workload needs to be reduced, personal tutors need to fill gaps in their skills set, especially associated with student support, and institutional and departmental protocols be continually updated to support student wellbeing. Additionally, student wellbeing officers and professional, dedicated wellbeing advisors could be part of a long-term solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the engineering landscape is continually changing, and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a responsibility to design curricula that address the growing demands of various industry sectors. Likewise, the roles and responsibilities of an engineer are evolving; requiring a further broadening of the current engineering curriculum. As a profession, engineering draws upon broad interdisciplinary knowledge, and when training twenty-first-century engineers, universities should follow a more comprehensive teaching and learning approach, with a focus on both technical and soft skills including the integration of leadership into engineering curricula. However, the spectrum of engineering leadership is not well-defined. Leadership is one of the most widely sought-after skills in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) industries; it is, therefore, clear that more investigation needs to be carried out into this area of engineering pedagogy. One of the most distinct gaps in the literature is that there is little or no consensus on what approaches should be undertaken to integrate leadership in engineering courses by those in academia. This paper seeks to shed light on some of these gaps, with the primary objective of the evaluation of the current state of leadership education using a nation-wide sample of BEng1 Electronic Engineering course structures and contents at Russell Group2 universities in the UK. It highlights the case study of the University of York, where there is a strong emphasis on the integration of engineering leadership and management skills within the current BEng Electronic Engineering course structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourses around globalisation and internationalisation within higher education to date have tended to focus on institutional change. While recognising the importance of these debates, this paper suggests that issues around curriculum change and teaching and learning through global professions such as health and engineering have so far been largely neglected. Using evidence from the UK and Ireland, the paper looks particularly at how students perceive the importance and value of global perspectives to their professions. It concludes by noting that there is evidence of interest in integrating global perspectives within health and engineering degree courses from students, but that this raises major challenges concerning discipline-based knowledge, valuing differing perspectives and approaches towards teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Traditional engineering education in the UK, as established in the nineteenth century, is based on the principle that a degree in engineering should be focused on engineering science and not on the practice of engineering. This has proved to be seriously negative to the development of engineering ability in general and innovative engineering in particular. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons for this situation. Design/methodology/approach - Features of innovative engineering are outlined and a structure for learning which has potential to promote innovation is proposed. Findings - Because of principles based on misplaced academic elitism established in the nineteenth century, traditional engineering curricula tend to develop an academic mindset rather than an engineering mindset in students. They do little to support innovative engineering. As a result, the large amount of money spent on engineering education in the UK does not represent a good investment. The academic mindset does not well support any professional context. Originality/value - The paper provides a challenge to universities and professional engineering institutions which should be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, the Royal Aeronautical Society recommends the inclusion of practical flight exercises for accredited undergraduate aerospace engineering programmes to enhance learning and student experience. The majority of academic institutions teaching aerospace in the UK separate the theory and practice of flight dynamics with students attending a series of lectures supplemented by an intensive one-day flight exercise. Performance and/or handling qualities flight tests are performed in a dedicated aircraft fitted with specialist equipment for the recording and presentation of flight data. This paper describes an innovative approach to better integrate theory and practice and the use of portable Commercial-off-The-Shelf (COTS) technologies to enable a range of standard, unmodified aircraft to be used. The integration of theory and practice has enriched learning and teaching, improved coursework grades and the student experience. The use of COTS and unmodified aircraft has reduced costs and enabled increased student participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High skills are today seen as being of vital importance to economies, industries, companies and individuals. The engineering industry is no exception and the graduate engineer has a key position in this regard. In the research reported in this paper, the authors use in-depth interviews with industry experts to investigate the provision of undergraduate engineering education in the UK. The current and future skill needs of industry are examined. A typology of future engineering roles and their requisite attributes is proposed. Implications for undergraduate engineering are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - It has been suggested that organisations with a better balance, or critical mass, of women would be more tolerant of difference and foster the inclusion of other women. This paper seeks to investigate whether a strategy of critical mass can really work in the engineering sector. Design/methodology/approach - The data are based on research funded by the ESRC, and problematise critical mass theory through semi-structured qualitative interviews and focus groups with female students from a range of engineering disciplines. Findings - The findings demonstrate that women engineering students accept gender discrimination, view the industry positively, value their "novelty" status, and are critical of other women. Research limitations/implications - While these attitudes may be a result of women's assimilation into the existing engineering culture, they do little to further women's cause in engineering. Furthermore, it points to both the necessity, and difficulties, of transforming the engineering culture to ensure that the engineering professions are a place where women can not only survive but also thrive. Originality/value - While previous research has addressed the critical mass of women in science, engineering and technology, this research critiques critical mass theory, not only because women continue to remain isolated within the sector, despite increasing numbers, but also because many women engineers reinforce the masculine culture within engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2000 the UK Engineering Professors' Council (EPC) drafted an output standard to describe first-cycle engineering programmes that would prepare students for practice and further professional learning. The standard described what is authentic and worthwhile in engineering education—it identified complex outcomes of learning. This poses practical and theoretical challenges: how can we know if a student has met this standard? This paper argues that complex outcomes like these often resist measurement and that it is appropriate to use other forms of judgement when trying to assess student achievement. This differentiated approach to assessment, which values formative assessment (or feedback) as well as summative assessment (or feedout), is summarized. It becomes necessary, then, to think about the assessment arrangements for whole programmes, not just for individual modules. Some implications of this programmic and differentiated approach are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the process of review, design, and delivery of a course in modern embedded systems, an international collaborative teaching project involving the University of New South Wales (Australia), Manchester University, and Imperial College, London University (United Kingdom). This project, being the first of its kind anywhere in the world, provides a learning environment that replicates the current industrial practice in embedded systems design in an easy and comprehensible setting, an environment where the processor, dedicated coprocessors, and software are all integrated to create a functional system such as used in sophisticated electronic devices, including mobile phones, Web phones, televisions, digital cameras, and personal digital assistants. Such collaborations are important in both reducing development costs in developing up-to-date, and increasingly sophisticated, courses and in addressing pedagogical issues that are common between computer and electrical engineering programs in all academic institutions. To assist students' learning experience, the course is supported with purpose built state-of-the-art programmable hardware and software development platforms, carefully planned laboratory experiments, lecture notes, weekly online quizzes, tutorials, and a companion CD-ROM as a learning tool. Since the introduction of this complete package, students' satisfaction, assessment results, and skills obtained through evaluation and assessment methods have improved markedly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous increase in tuition fees in high education in many countries requires justification by the university authorities of what students receive from them in return. One of the key factors of student recruitment is values for money and quality learning experiences including hands-on industry training that can guarantee immediate employment for the graduates. This article describes redesigning the curriculum of a cloud computing undergraduate module in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Academy. Industry-based practical hands-on labs were incorporated into this module for engineering students to improve their practical knowledge and skills related to the Internet of Things. Through an innovative approach, this practitioner research introduces industry best practices and hands-on labs in cloud computing. In this approach, academic theories were incorporated in cloud computing with their applications through industry attachment. It enables students to have both the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills for ensuring their careers in the field of cloud computing. The study finds that students tend to be more engaged and learn better when theoretical knowledge and understanding are combined with real-world applications through the attachment with the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article is the result of a grounded theory investigation into the ways PhD topics are assigned by supervisors in engineering and selected by students in the social sciences/humanities in UK universities, broadly referred to as ‘topic arrangement’, which can be regarded as one aspect of academic socialisation into academic Discourse communities. Interview data was collected from thirteen Iranian PhD students studying in different UK universities and six of their supervisors during 2000–2001. One further interview was conducted with a professor of sociology. The interviews were transcribed, thematically coded, and analysed using NUD.IST. The results show that PhD students themselves often select PhD topics in the social sciences/humanities, whereas PhD topics are often assigned to PhD students by engineering supervisors. The reason for this difference in practice between these two fields seems to stem from different ideologies on what constitutes a PhD across disciplines, as well as funded projects, which are more likely to be available to engineering supervisors and students. Throughout the paper, a modest attempt has been made to draw the attention of EAP practitioners to a redefinition of the concept of Discourse with a big ‘D’, which includes linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of advanced academic literacy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents the findings from a study of the development of transferable skills and considers the most effective approach to teaching transferable skills in four university departments of chemical engineering in the UK. Case study methods, incorporating mind maps, follow-up interviews, focus groups and questionnaires, were used to collect data. Although the literature suggests that skills development is best taught in engineering curricula through integrated teaching approaches, findings from this study suggest that embedded and bolt-an teaching approaches are also helpful in augmenting the development of transferable skills. All three approaches help build student awareness of transferable-skills education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting and retaining high-calibre students in science and engineering is becoming more difficult. At the same time, we are urged by the UK Government to recruit from a wider pool. This has necessitated a review of how we go about recruiting and retaining our students. This paper sets out some of our underpinning ideas. Student retention needs can be focussed on a number of stages. First, school-level motivation, starting at secondary, and probably even primary school level. Second, recruitment at students of the appropriate calibre, motivation and experience. Third, student induction, including an overview of subject and programme. Fourth, ongoing student support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the academic year 1995-1996 a series of Mathematics Support tutorials were held at King's College London for first-year undergraduates in engineering and science. The students were chosen as a result of their performance on a mathematics pre-test held during their first week at university. The test had been designed and used more than a decade ago for use with pre-university students. A comparison between the 1980s and 1990s performance on the test is carried out and reasons for changes suggested. A further comparison is made between the engineering under graduates' performance on the pre-test and their scores on their later end-ofsemester mathematics examination. This reveals a pattern indicating that an all round understanding of graphs on the pre-test predicted success on the later mathematics examination, despite an almost total lack of graph questions on that examination. Reasons for this pattern are suggested and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This sequential, explanatory mixed-methods study examined students' intentions to stay in or leave engineering industry careers upon graduation. We gathered survey data from 128 second-year engineering students about their intentions and attitudes. The participants were enrolled in a two-week interdisciplinary engineering summer course at University College London called How to Change the World. From this survey, we also interviewed 15 students, eight intending to stay and seven intending to leave, about their intentions and experiences that informed those decisions. We found that students' perceptions of future (motivation), expectations, experiences at university, confidence in their ability to succeed in engineering courses, and sense of belonging in engineering industry were the main contributors to their decisions to stay or leave. The two data streams combined provide a richer picture of how students may be better supported during and through their engineering degree programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for "industry-academia knowledge transfer (IAKT)" and close collaboration in Colombia has been recognised as critical to innovation, while in the United Kingdom (UK) an IAKT model has been successfully deployed in the UK benefitting both stakeholders. As a result in Colombia, an IAKT model does not exist to guide these two key stakeholder groups. The methodology used is based on the analysis of the data collected directly from the aquatic renewable energy (ARE) industry and academia in the Orkney islands (Scotland). In addition, literature available in the public domain was used and analysed. Having this information, a knowledge-education model is proposed for the Colombian context. The IAKT model curriculum was based on ARE course topics and validated in a preliminary phase with UCC undergraduate engineering students from different disciplines. The results were very promising in terms of the skills developed by the students, not only technical but also in communication skills, teamwork, critical thinking and so on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become increasingly common for tasks traditionally carried out by engineers to be undertaken by technicians and technologist with access to sophisticated computers and software that can often perform complex calculations that were previously the responsibility of engineers. Not surprisingly, this development raises serious questions about the future role of engineers and the education needed to address these changes in technology as well as emerging priorities from societal to environmental challenges. In response to these challenges, a new design module was created for undergraduate engineering students to design and build temporary shelters for a wide variety of end users from refugees, to the homeless and children. Even though the module provided guidance on principles of design thinking and methods for observing users needs through field studies, the students found it difficult to respond to needs of specific end users but instead focused more on purely technical issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs in the high technology industry in Great Britain. It has been announced that the membership subscriptions for 2007 has been ratified. Chartered Engineer in Great Britain has coordinate master plan in order to develop new route to professional registration. According to new research conducted by the Engineering and Technology Board, student numbers on engineering, manufacturing and technology courses within Further Education colleges show a 26% decrease.

In many universities, admissions decisions are made based upon the advanced-level (A-Level) results. The purpose of this study was to assess the value of A-level and international equivalents as a predictor of early achievement in higher education. About 135 UK and 92 international undergraduate engineering students from 35 countries were assessed at different stages of their instruction. The results show that the key predictor for academic performance is whether or not the students received a British education. The implications are that more policies and awareness are needed in order to effectively support international students in engineering during their transitional process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following concerns about the poor conceptual understanding shown by science students, two US research groups have been experimenting with the use of 'classroom communication systems' (CCSs) to promote dialogue in large classes. CCS technology makes it easier to give students immediate feedback on concept tests and to manage peer and class discussions. Improvements in conceptual reasoning have been shown using these methods. However, these research groups have each piloted different discussion sequences. Hence, little is known about which sequence is best and under what circumstances. This study compares the effects of each sequence on students' experiences of learning engineering in a UK university. The research methods included interviews, a survey and a critical incident questionnaire. The results demonstrated that the type of dialogue and the discussion sequence have important effects on learning. The findings are discussed in relation to social constructivist theories of learning and in relation to the implications for teaching in wired classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the significance of curriculum organization on improving performance engineering students in Great Britain. Details on issues of procrastination and time investment; Effects of instruction and examination characteristics on study progress; Factors contributing to educational development.

Research on student learning in higher education has highlighted the central role that students‘ conceptions of learning play in influencing their approaches to learning. This article reports on a study of conceptions of learning among engineering students on a one-year foundation course. Students were interviewed about their conceptions of learning at three intervals during their academic year. The data was analysed using a phenomenographic perspective and from the data five qualitatively different conceptions of learning were identified. The resulting characterisation of these conceptions of learning is presented using excerpts from the interviews and some implications for student learning are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]