Noel Jackson

Simultaneous development of management skills and behaviours in taught academic programmes

Technical programmes frequently focus exclusively on the associated technical domain knowledge and skills with perhaps some generic skills development coincidentally and perhaps accidentally included. If Higher Education (HE), as the main provider of competent graduates, is to enable employers to be able to respond to the key global challenges of the next decade, is a pure focus on technicalities sufficient? It is contended that the answer is no, graduates need to have competence in aspects of management they will face in the early stages of employment. This attitude is firmly adopted in the department of Electronics at the University of York where management is integrated into almost all in its undergraduate and some of its postgraduate programme portfolio. The paper starts with a discussion of the justification for management teaching as a legitimate subject in the Electrical and Information Education field. This is followed by a literature review that considers the skills and behaviours managers need, appropriate pedagogies to develop these and assessment methods suitable to warrant them. A case study is then described of the Electronic Engineering programmes at the University of York including, a dedicated taught Masters in Engineering Management. In the taught MSc in Engineering Management there is a consistent approach to the assessment of generic skills, a strong emphasis on curiosity-based learning and a structured individual learning log for every student. Statistics on student numbers and feedback on the programme from different student groups and the programmes external examiner are given. The overall quality assurance measures taken for the programme are also briefly discussed. The paper proposes a generic programme modular structure that provides space for technical content but also for management content and shows how managerial behaviours can be developed as an integral part of the programme. It also describes the approach taken to assessment and discusses the issues these bring, in particular scalability.

A survey results on existing Electrical and Information Engineering programmes oriented to key global technical challenge areas

Over the last 20 years the European Association for Education in Electrical and Information Engineering (EAEEIE) has proven itself to be a strong organization aiming to support Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE) education across Europe. EAEEIE members participated in several EU projects (i.e. ELLEIEC, THEIERE) with recognized contribution to EIE education process. Its new Strategic Alignment of Electrical and Information Engineering in European Higher Education Institutions (SALEIE) EU supported project aims to provide higher education models in the EIE disciplines that can respond to the key global technical challenges. This paper deals with the last results within the SALEIE project work package WP3 (Global Challenges). After defining the global challenges that the EIE graduates may face, a survey has been conducted to identify existing models in EIE higher education and their degree of response to key global technical challenges.

Is reflective writing an effective peer assessment tool for students in Higher Education

Today the ability to monitor and evaluate the performance of team members and identify their strengths and weaknesses is highly crucial in any organizational role. Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) are adopting different strategies in their teaching curricula and assessment methods to encourage the development of team management skills among graduates, one of which is peer assessment. It is an important component in the design of an effective learning environment in Higher Education (HE) and for promoting a strong participatory and collaborative culture among students. It provides students with a platform to not only engage with the HE learning process but also to learn from each other by receiving and giving critical feedback. Reflective writing in HE offers a flexible platform for students to discuss the contributions made by peers in teamwork however, not many researchers have looked at its potential as a peer assessment tool. This study addresses this gap by using the case study of the MSc Engineering Management (EM) programme at York (UK). Using the method of content analysis, this study looks at the quality of peer assessment and the skills gap analysis demonstrated in the reflective assignments students undertake in one of the modules. The findings show the viability and potential of this method for building peer assessment skills. It eliminates some of the limitations like bias among students usually encountered in other peer assessment tools. It also helps in skills gap analysis and for understanding group dynamics in teamwork. Students should therefore, be encouraged to seek the application of such tools for skills analysis, to build up confidence in peer assessment and boosting employability factors.