Part time study distorts student attrition rates in engineering programs

Paper

Gibbings, Peter, Godfrey, Elizabeth, King, Robin and Wandel, Weide. 2010. "Part time study distorts student attrition rates in engineering programs." Gardner, Anne and Jolly, Lesley (ed.) 21st Annual Conference for the Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE 2010). Sydney, Australia 05 - 08 Dec 2010 Sydney, Australia.
Paper/Presentation Title

Part time study distorts student attrition rates in engineering programs

Presentation TypePaper
AuthorsGibbings, Peter (Author), Godfrey, Elizabeth (Author), King, Robin (Author) and Wandel, Weide (Author)
EditorsGardner, Anne and Jolly, Lesley
Journal or Proceedings TitleProceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2010)
Number of Pages7
Year2010
Place of PublicationSydney, Australia
ISBN9780646546100
Web Address (URL) of Paperhttp://aaee.com.au/conferences/AAEE2010/PDF/AUTHOR/AE100018.PDF
Conference/Event21st Annual Conference for the Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE 2010)
Event Details
Rank
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
Event Details
21st Annual Conference for the Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE 2010)
Parent
Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE)
Delivery
In person
Event Date
05 to end of 08 Dec 2010
Event Location
Sydney, Australia
Abstract

Standard four-year full-time engineering degrees commonly take eight years when studied part-time by distance education and this can distort apparent retention and attrition rates. Recent publications indicate the national part-time annual retention rate for engineering degrees at regional universities is 62.85%. Extending this over eight years, only 2.4% of part time students who enter the program could be expected to graduate. Whilst most would agree that this graduation rate is quite ridiculous, what would be a reasonable graduation rate? This paper presents empirical data to determine the actual graduation rates achieved with a predominantly part time cohort of students at a regional university. The results highlight the
inappropriateness of generic retention and degree completion models when comparing small regional universities where the majority of students are of mature age and study part time, with large urban universities where the majority of students are school leavers and are studying full time. If retention and completion rates are to be introduced as performance indicators in the
higher education sector, the findings of this study have the potential to contribute to the development of appropriate models. It was reassuring that the retention and completion rates achieved at this university are significantly better than the quoted national averages.

Keywordspart-time study; engineering; attrition rates
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020390113. Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy
390402. Education assessment and evaluation
409999. Other engineering not elsewhere classified
Public Notes

© 2010 Australasian Association for Engineering Education. The authors assign to AaeE and educational non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced.

Byline AffiliationsDepartment of Surveying and Land Information
University of Technology Sydney
Faculty of Engineering and Surveying
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