ERIC Number: EJ1420504
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1356-2517
EISSN: EISSN-1470-1294
What Lessons can University Education Learn from Outside the Ivory Tower: Insights from Engineering Alumni
Teaching in Higher Education, v29 n4 p970-986 2024
Alumni can offer authentic perceptions of how university education is relevant to career requirements with direct educational experiences and frontline work experiences. This study captures the experiences of alumni in the engineering field to illuminate the multi-faceted distinctions between the higher education and employment systems. Based on semi-structured interviews and artefact collection, the findings reveal that the university system focuses more on fragmented and theoretical knowledge in course goals, using classical textbooks as the main means of instruction, while the workplace system emphasises the whole picture and application competence, using cutting-edge instruments and project-based approaches to enhance employees' abilities. Students at universities are less incentivised to work hard and collaborate with each other than employees at companies due to different incentive rules and different community milieu. The workplace system also has a better division of labour than universities in cultivating talents. Practical implications are discussed regarding aspects of higher education reform.
Descriptors: Engineering Education, Alumni, Educational Experience, Education Work Relationship, Workplace Learning, Engineering, Technical Occupations, Incentives, Educational Change, Higher Education, Foreign Countries
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A