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Barriers and enabling factors for engaging engineering students in research. A multi-perspective approach
Publikationstyp
Conference Paper
Date Issued
2020-01-01
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Institut
TORE-URI
Start Page
1458
End Page
1468
Citation
Varietas Delectat. Complexity is the New Normality (SEFI 2020)
Contribution to Conference
Scopus ID
Industry 4.0 requires diverse, creative, and adaptable engineers, who solve complex problems based on innovation, research, and development. Thus, engaging students in research is a potentially high-impact educational practice. However, previous studies have shown that implementing students' engagement in research faces multiple obstacles that stress on the dimensions culture, resources in higher education institutions, structure of study programmes, academics' qualification and students' competencies. In engineering, however, little attention is spent on what academics and students perceive as barriers and enabling factors. This study highlights conditions for engaging students in research in engineering education. For this, we conducted six semi-structured interviews with students and academics at a German university of technology and analyzed those using thematic analysis. We found that interviewees perceive students' engagement in research differently and associate a wide range of activities. Together, they draw a manifold picture of its constraints. Beside common aspects, they identified the large amount of obligatory basic courses and the lack of practice in undergraduate programmes as hindering; a structure quite typical in German traditional engineering education. They also made various recommendations, such as supporting a culture for engaging students in research, appropriate facilities, and programme-based research skill development. Furthermore, they reported that academics need an open mind for topics of students' interest, while students are required to engage in extracurricular student-academic partnerships in research. Upon those findings, we argue for the need for further research and, subsequently, suggest formulating strategies by involving all stakeholders. This can potentially ensure developing future engineering talents at this university and beyond.
Subjects
Engaging students in research
Interviews