Exploring the self-efficancy of engineering students : findings of a longitudinal study relating to student recruitment, development, retention and success

Abstract

Engineering is regarded as a scarce and critical skill in South Africa, and the shortage of South African engineers represents a capacity and scare-skills crises for the country. A further problem facing the country is the shortage of woman engineers. Further to encouraging and supporting women entering the field of engineering, a South African university established the Women in Engineering Leadership Association (WELA) in 2011. In 2013, WELA embarked on a longitudinal study to establish the impact of the association on WELA members, and to determine the differences in self-efficacy between male and woman engineering students. The research instrument used for the purpose of the study was an adapted version of the Longitudinal Assessment of Engineering Self-Efficacy as developed by Marra and Bogue from the Assessing Women in Engineering (AWE) project. The findings presented in this article are the results of the first round of questionnaires, which highlighted findings relating to student recruitment, development, retention and success. The results of the first round of the study identified that co-curricular interventions were important to prepare students for the world of work, that international partnerships played a potentially powerful role in developing students, that role models were important especially to female engineering students and that technology was an important tool to recruit students. The aim of this article is to assist engineering faculties to understand possible gender differences and self-efficacy issues that could influence course selection, success, development and retention rates of male and woman engineering students. The study also envisions that other universities concerned with student development, success and retention would be able to duplicate some of the findings described.