1. Darwinism at work: College attitude change may provide college survival? Trond Clausen, Telemark University College Porsgrunn, Norway 3 rd CeTUSS workshop: Cross-disciplinarity in Engineering Education Uppsala, Sweden, 5– 6 December, 2005

2. References [1] Clausen, T., Hagen, S.T., Hasleberg, H, and Aarnes, J.H.: Recruiting engineering students from vocational schools. Proc 7 th UICEE Annual Conf. On Engn. Educ., Mumbai, India, 285-288 (2003) - background [2] Clausen, T., Hagen, S.T., Hasleberg, H, and Aarnes, J.H.: Recruiting com-petence from vocational schools: Paradise Regained? Proc 6 th UICEE Annual Conf. On Engn. Educ., Cairns, Australia, 199-202 (2004) - background [3] Clausen, T.: Vocational School Interdisciplinarity as a Key to Success, Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), Savannah, GA, USA (2004), http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2004/index.htm - background http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2004/index.htm [4] Hagen, S. T.: Evalueringsrapport 3, Y-VEI, Høgskolen i Telemark (Telemark University College – TUC), 3901 Porsgrunn, Norway (2005) – tables and graphs

3. Project background – negative aspects 1.After the ”mid-nineties”: A dwindling student body, all engineering departments were affected 2.Electrical (power) engineering in particular suffered, resulting in the shut down of 8 of the country’s 11 power engineering departments. Three surviving departments exist in 1) Trondheim, 2) Bergen, and 3) Telemark (Porsgrunn)

4. Project background – positive aspects 1.Since 1974 a law has required all secondary education programs to ”promote scientific way of thinking and way of working”. - This could open for ”new thinking”-experiments like the Telemark University College’s (TUC) pilot project on recruitment directly from vocational schools 2.Such ”new thinking” is heavily and jointly supported (politically, practically, economically) by the labor organization and employer’s federations, the Air Force, the Ministry of Education and the Parliament 3.Positive…? The TUC thinking is – as expected - heavily opposed by major university & college rectors and some professors claiming such thinking to represent a flattening of “the academic level” and quality of education

5. Conflicting views Traditional: The Academic Level in engineering is expressed by the student’s ability to solve particularly advanced equations in mathematics and engineering: The course content is the key Alternative: At the bachelor level, the academic level is expressed by the selection, implementation, and documentation of learning processes: The professor role as an administrator of learning proces-ses is the key

6. Hand & Brain Equivalency Under the Law One law of training governs primary and secondary education in Norway. Its § 2 “Pur- pose” states that the school system shall … promote “..scientific way of thinking and way of working…” Thus, this principle applies even to the voca- tional school, which is a part of the secondary education system

7. Equivalence/Changes ”Ordinary” students have a broad, general background but are technically almost illiterate. Thus, their engineering programs must contain material which is already well known by vocationally trained students ”Vocational” students are already technically literal (practical and theoretical) at the elementary level but need a program taking them broader and deeper into certain basics, such as sciences, including liberal arts, mathematics etc.

8. Ill-defined quality criteria “Quality” in higher education has recently been defined as (1) professor competency at the time of hiring, and (2) the number of students per professor rate At TUC an educational research program has been designed to document, evaluate, and assess the pilot class

9. Pilot project quality assurance program 1.Scientific evaluation (international conferences on engineering education and articles in national and international professional journals) 2.External peer evaluation with respect to pedagogical and methodical aspects 3.The Project Board: The TUC rector The TUC-faculty project leader 1 repr. from The Electrical Contractors Association of Norway (TELFO) 1 repr. from The Federation of Norwegian Manufacturing Industries (TBL) 1 repr. for The Norwegian Electricity Industry Association (EBL) 1 repr. for The Air Force 1 repr. for the Superintendent of Telemark primary and secondary schools

10. Evaluation and assessment 1. Evaluation A continuous evaluation process, including tests, homework, laboratory exercises, projects etc. The final exam normally counts 30 – 60 % 2. Assessment ”Surprise tests” about two weeks after first semester start, given to the ”vocational” class and selected reference groups simultaneously Specially designed final exams given each year to enable a rele-vant comparison of ”vocational” and ”traditional” student groups

11. Six TUC benefits (better TUC economy and faculty joy not mentioned) 1.Internal organization has created many project ”owners” 2.An internal environment of self evaluation and criticism has been established 3.An internal culture of scientifically controlled ”cut and try” culture appears to emerge 4.Channels for future cooperation TUC and regional secondary schools are opening up 5.Direct links between organizations, federations, regional businesses and TUC are reinforced 6.Hand and brain integration in technical education are about to be restored

12. Y-VEI Number of applicants and factual number of students 2002 - 2005 2002200320042005 Number of qualified applicants 51127101103 Competition points required for admission None38.039.741.7 Number of students by October 1, 2004 364645- Number of stud- ents by June 1, 2005 263643-

13. Average grades through three years of study 1 st pilot class students (2002 - 2005) A (best) – E: passing grades; F = “fail”

14. Average grades through the first two years of study 2 nd pilot class students (2003 - 2005) A (best) – E: passing grades; F = “fail”

15. Average grades through the first year of study 3 rd pilot class students (2004 - 2005) A (best) – E: passing grades; F = “fail” Second year: 42 stud, but by now, no exams

16. A ny Q uestions?