DISTINCTLY HUMAN - STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF TRANSVERSAL SKILLS IN ENGINEERING CURRICULUM

Through their participation in accreditation procedures, engineering educators are well versed in documenting transversal skills addressed by individual courses and across programs. But to what extent do students perceive support for the transversal skills that interest them? The student perspective is important to assess the curriculum as experienced by students but also because students’ perception of what is taught is related to what they actually learn. Recent reports from our institution found that course documents fell short of institutional goals for transversal skill development and what graduates wanted skill development. While changes are still being implemented, this survey investigates students’ current experiences. We asked 244 Bachelor and Masters engineering students about the transversal skills they encountered in the fall 2023 semester. Guided by the CDIO syllabus, we coded students' open-ended responses about the transversal skills they were most interested in developing and those for which they received the least support to develop. All three categories of transversal skills were found in students’ responses, while disciplinary or technical skills were completely absent. This shows that transversal skills are understood by students. Skills from the category Interpersonal skills: Teamwork and Communication were cited most often both for interest (46% of responses) and for lack of support (45% of responses). The CDIO syllabus categories of Personal and professional skills and the Innovation process were also well represented. Using chi-squared tests with a resampling approach, our findings indicate that students do not perceive adequate support to develop the skills they prioritise. Our study suggests that the increased attention to developing engineering students’ transversal skills is not yet sufficient. Frameworks and resources that support teachers to incorporate skill development in their courses are an important element in ensuring students receive the explicit and scaffolded instruction they need to develop these important skills.