Students’ And Lecturers’ Perceptions On The Importance, Training, And Assessment Of Engineering And Lifelong Learning Competencies

Professional competencies and lifelong learning (LLL) are essential components for success in the engineering profession. Whilst engineering education has primarily focused on providing students with the required technical engineering competencies, new visions emphasise the importance of LLL and point towards the need for acquiring the necessary competencies for LLL during their study programme. The importance of professional and LLL competencies is clear, but what are the views of the engineering students and lecturers? In this study, a comparison is made between students' and lecturers' perceptions on professional and LLL competencies. The survey focuses on three aspects: (1) how important are the different competencies in engineering practice, (2) to what extent are they taught within the curriculum, and (3) to what extent are they assessed? In addition, lecturers were also asked to declare to what extent they possess the different professional and LLL competencies themselves. When looking at the top five competencies regarding perceived importance, extent of teaching, and extent of assessment, there are great similarities between students and lecturers. However, clear significant differences do emerge when comparing perceived importance, extent of teaching, and extent of assessment. These findings may be of interest to engineering programmes when evaluating, adapting or completely re-inventing the curriculum.