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Session 3548

EET Graduate Survey Results

William E. Cole, Jerome Tapper School of Engineering Technology Northeastern University

ABSTRACT

In February 1997, The School of Engineering Technology at Northeastern University conducted a survey of the EET graduates from our program. The student sample included both Bachelors and Associates degree graduates, their employers, as well as some current part time students. A total of 133 responses to this survey were received and analyzed. This paper presents the responses to this survey and results of our analysis of these responses. These results include information on what our graduates are doing, what they find most important from their education, their pursuits of further education, their professional associations (including registration), and general implications these results have upon the EET curriculum.

INTRODUCTION

In February 1997, The school of Engineering Technology at Northeastern University conducted a survey of the EET graduates from our program. The main goal in this survey was to learn what skills our alumni found most and least important in the work place. Particular interest was the balance between technical knowledge and skills versus the process skills including problem solving and communications. Additionally, we wanted to probe two specific areas within the curriculum: graphics and computer usage.

The survey instruments are shown in the Appendix to this paper. Before creating these survey instruments, a literature search was conducted. From this search, a number of previous survey instruments were found and used as examples in creating these instruments. Some of the more useful examples include these references.1,2,3 The core of this survey is the second page: a series of 33 questions asking the respondent to rate each area on a scale of one to five in terms of importance on the job and secondly in terms of how well their education prepared them in each of these areas. In addition, the respondents were asked to respond to ten specific questions.

This survey instrument was sent to all our alumni graduating between 1990 and 1996 (approximately 1200 alumni in the combined areas of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Electrical Engineering Technology, and Computer Technology). These alumni included students who were recipients of either a Bachelor or an Associate degree. Thirteen percent of the alumni responded to the survey. Only responses from the EET alumni are reported in this paper while a second paper presents the results from the Mechanical Engineering Technology alumni. Alumni were requested to forward a second survey instrument to their supervisors. Unfortunately, only six responses were received from supervisors. Finally, a group of part time (evening) students

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Cole, W. E., & Tapper, J. (1998, June), Eet Graduate Survey Results Paper presented at 1998 Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/1-2--7065