Engineering Undergrad aspirations

Mind the Gap Findings: Undergraduate Aspirations

In the third Mind the Gap post, we focus on the aspirations of the undergraduates who submitted a response to our survey (view post 1 Demographics, post 2 Graduate Employment).

The survey was submitted by six 3rd years, six 4th years and eleven 5th years.  A total of 23 undergraduates in total.  All of the undergraduates indicated that they would wish to continue with a career in engineering.

We asked why, people felt the dropout rate was so high for engineering.  Note that all of our respondents were either currently studying or had graduated from an engineering degree, therefore had not themselves dropped out.  The top three reasons sited by our survey for the high drop out rate was:

  • The workload was too heavy
  • The course was not what they expected
  • People take the course for someone else, for example a parent.

Respondents provided their views on how students could be encouraged to take up engineering jobs.  The suggested received can be summarised as:

  • More interactions between industry and academia through open days, workshops, expos, site visits.  These should start at high school and go all the way through university.
  • Academia to introduce a practical approach to learning where a student is able to visualize what is theoretically learnt
  • Internship opportunities, both before, during and after university
  • Govt should incentivize interns even in the private sector.  A number of respondents felt they should receive some stipend for undertaking internships
  • Opening up the informal sector and encouraging students to look for opportunities in this sector
  • Universities to have career offices that offer a linkage between academia and industry
  • Creation of more content encouraging students to take up STEM related courses from the younger education levels e.g. high school. To help dispel the myth that engineering is hard, but rather that it requires hard work.
  • Open up more opportunities for graduates in the employment sector.  There is a perception that there are not sufficient jobs available.
  • Streamline accreditation issues with engineering boards. They play a part in discouraging students.
  • Ensure universities are properly funded so they are able to teach about the latest equipment and provide research and development opportunities.

Our next blog will focus on the feedback we received with regard to engineering internships. You can view all of our news items and updates here.