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1
Engineering Heroes Wanted: The Importance of Alumni
Gillian N. Saunders-Smits
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology,
Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands, (G.N.Saunders@tudelft.nl)
Abstract
This paper reflects on the importance of alumni for engineering colleges. The paper reflects on the four
areas in which educational institutes can benefit from their alumni: (financial) support, academic ranking,
role models and curriculum evaluation and development. It is argued that alumni can help institutes to
attract more young people to engineering. The paper also showcases the benefits of alumni research with
regards to curriculum development and evaluation based on a case study at the Faculty of Aerospace
Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The outcomes show that evaluating a
curriculum by using alumni has clear benefits for curriculum development in terms of the competencies
required for engineers to be successful in the work place. It is therefore suggested that alumni research
with a view to curriculum development should be carried out on a much larger scale than is currently the
case.
Keywords: alumni research, competencies, curriculum development, success
1. INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade there have been many calls by governments and industry alike for the need to attract more
young people to engineering to head the world wide shortage of engineers. As a result of these calls, universities
and governments have undertaken action. The emphasis of these actions so far has been on making engineering
degrees more attractive by innovating teaching methods, introducing new engineering degrees on popular topics
and public interest campaigns encouraging young people to choose engineering. However, in all of these
campaigns, one important group of people who can really help in attracting more people to engineering has been
overlooked: the alumni. This paper will discuss the importance of alumni and what can be learnt from them with
regards to their influence on the ranking of universities, their opportunity to become role models in society as
well as their support both in- and extrinsic. But more importantly it will describe the importance of carrying out
alumni research as a field of educational studies to further curriculum evaluation and development, based on
research carried out at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology
2 ALUMNI AND THEIR IMPORTANCE
Alumni have always been important to institutes of education. Historically their achievements added to the
name and fame of institutions. Next to that alumni were also known to favourably exert their influence through
the “old-boys network” to further their old schools. However, for one reason or another, this does not appear to
be the case for most modern institutes of education, the traditional (old school) colleges excepted. Especially
engineering colleges who themselves are often anywhere between a 150 and 0 years old do not seem to make
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good use of their alumni. Engineering alumni themselves are also not very visible. When asked to name a
famous engineering graduate the author experienced that most of her students could not name a single person
who actually holds an engineering degree. The engineering alumni are currently almost invisible and neglected,
either by accident or by design, and the time has come for all that to change.
2.1 Areas of Alumni Involvement
Currently there appear to be four different areas in which alumni are of importance to their alma maters
□ Support -In the United States alumni of educational institutes have long been known to support both
in- and extrinsically their alma maters. Many universities in the Unites States owe their great facilities
to a wealthy alumnus and many a graduate owes their first job to an alumnus.
□ Academic Ranking - The achievements of alumni are often used to illustrate the importance and
quality of a university. More recently this has been quantified in terms of scientific ranking: The
Academic ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong’s university’s Institute of Higher
Education attributes a 20% weight factor to the number of alumni winning a Noble Prize or a Fields
medal [1].
□ Role models -Most academic institutions have a long list of famous alumni. Many students are attracted
to a university because of its impact its alumni have had on society, even if this particular alumnus
graduated centuries ago.
□ Curriculum Evaluation and Development - Alumni are in the unique position to evaluate the
effectiveness of their study in their professional lives. They can indicate the shortcomings they
experienced during their time at university and also indicate from their day-to-day working experience
as engineers what current skills and knowledge new engineers need to succeed in their professional
careers.
The last two areas named, in which educational institutes can benefit from their alumni, are areas which are
currently significantly underdeveloped by most institutions and thereby those institutes are denying themselves
valuable resources in order to further the academic excellence of their institute.
2.2. Current State of Alumni Research
Taking into account the above mentioned benefits alumni can have to their institution, one would expect alumni
research to be well developed area. However, scientific studies of alumni are a relatively new area of research.
Over the years many institutions have commissioned commercial market research companies to research degree
satisfaction and the labour market for its graduates but no formal research was carried out. In the United States
some scientific research into the success of alumni and its relation to the curriculum was carried out in the late
sixties and early seventies [2], [3]. An upsurge can be noticed in the late nineties with the introduction of the new
ABET criteria [4]. As an illustration of this point the first conference of Research in alumni relations in the
United States was not held until 1998 [5]. In Europe the situation is not much better: little to no scientific alumni
research was carried out. In the Netherlands alumni research has only recently attracted more interest from the
educational science community [6], [7].
Scientific alumni research can therefore be classed as a new area in educational research from which a lot can be
learned in terms of curriculum development and assessment of learning outcomes. This is especially important
for engineering colleges when one considers that both North American [4] and European [8] accreditation
authorities require universities to keep track of their alumni and to actively ensure that their courses still meet the
requirements of their stakeholders.
3. ALUMNI RESEARCH AT DELFT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
At Delft University of Technology alumni research was until recently not an area of study. However, at the
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology a comprehensive study of its aerospace
graduates was carried out in the summer of 2005[6]. The research was based on the desire to investigate if the
current curriculum of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology sufficiently
3
prepares its graduates for their future careers. This was done by studying the alumni of the faculty as they are in
the best situation to assess the impact of their degree in aerospace engineering on their professional success and
comment on what are important qualities for aerospace engineers to have in order to differentiate themselves
from those with an average career.
3.1 Research Set-up
To discover what those qualities were, a literature survey was carried out which identified a number of
competencies. These competencies were then put in front of an expert panel consisting of employers of
aerospace engineers. Based on a literature survey and feedback of an expert panel a list of 12 competencies,
deemed important for the professional success of alumni, was developed.
□ ability to synthesize,
□ analytical skills,
□ problem solving skills,
□ people management skills
□ operational management skills,
□ oral communication skills
□ written communication skills,
□ networking skills,
□ broad technical knowledge,
□ specialist technical knowledge,
□ ability for life-long learning,
□ ability to work in teams.
It was also discovered in literature that there are two principal career tracks of aerospace engineers: that of the
engineering specialist and that of the engineering manager. An engineering specialist was defined as an engineer
who either works within a company or a research institute and is an expert in a part of engineering science and is
not really involved in the running of the business or the institute only in the product it delivers. They are
individual contributors who apply their specialized engineering skill and knowledge. Product in this context
could mean anything from aircraft parts to calculations. Typically scientists at universities, researchers at
research institutes or research & product development departments, etcetera fall in this category. Similarly an
engineering manager was defined as an engineer who supervises the process leading to the product. They
generally have to look at the bigger picture and are not as specialised although they have a broad technical
knowledge. They use their engineering skills to analyse and influence generic processes. They typically have
taken up a position of responsibility, such as manager, director, chairman, dean etc. Therefore it was also
important to find out if there were different competencies needed to be successful as an engineering specialist
than as an engineering manager.
Based on the literature survey carried out, a decision was taken to limit the success definition to three factors:
level of job responsibility, salary with respect to work experience and the combination of the two: salary with
respect to work experience and level of job responsibility.
All aerospace alumni, listed in the Delft Alumni Office database, who graduated between 1975 and 2000, were
approached using a questionnaire. The response to the questionnaire was 40%, which was in line with responses
to similar research carried out in the United States [5].
3.2 Results
The results of the questionnaire showed that the alumni are employed, earn above average salaries and are very
satisfied with their degree. They would also recommend the current degree programme to others. Just under half
of the respondents still work in the aerospace industry and more than two thirds work in a position that requires
an engineering degree. Only one in four alumni undertake formal forms of further education such as a PhD
degree or an additional Master degree. Additional degrees only appear to broaden their scope.
4
With regards to their degree in aerospace engineering alumni indicated that both the courses which emphasize
synthesis and closely resemble the later professional work environment such as the MSc thesis, the internship
and the design exercises as well as core engineering courses such as mechanics, mathematics and structures are
still important to them today.
0
1
2
3
4
5
Ability to synthesise
Analytical skills
Problem solving skills
People Management
skills
Operational Management
skills
Written
communication skills
Oral communication skills
Net worker
Have broad
technical knowledge
Have specialist
technical knowledge
Ability to work in teams
Ability for life-long learning
engineering specialist engineering manager undecided
FIGURE 1. Mean scores for the perceived importance by alumni of each competency in an alumnus’ current
position split whether respondents are managers, specialists, or undecided. (1 = totally unimportant – 5 = very
important).
The results of the survey showed that all 12 competencies were important to a certain degree for an alumnus’
current job (See also Figure 1). All relationships were positive with two sets of exceptions. Firstly, the
competencies networking skills, ability to work in teams were found to be important regardless of success in
terms of salary with work experience. The second exception is the negative relationship between success in
terms of salary with work experience and job responsibility and specialist technical knowledge. The overall list
of competencies was found to be a valid list of abilities aerospace engineers should possess to be successful in
their jobs. No significant relationship however, was found, between the contribution of aerospace engineering to
the competencies and professional success. Alumni feel that the degree course in aerospace engineering did not
contribute much to the competencies people management skills, operational management skills and networking
skills neither did their degree contribute to the competencies oral communication skills and the ability for life
long learning. Alumni also indicated they, themselves, are less capable in people and operational management
skills as well as networking skills. The results also showed that having good specialist technical knowledge does
contribute to more job responsibility but not necessarily to more salary. It was again found that the alumni’s
ability in people and operational management skills have a positive influence on their professional success.
Finally, the results (see figure 2) showed that contrary to the general opinion of alumni engineering specialists
feel that people management and operational management skills as well as networking skills are important for
them to their job. The contrary is true for specialist technical knowledge. When looking at engineering managers
it was found that engineering managers still find analytical skills important contrary to the general perceptions of
respondents (figure 3).
5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
5
Ability to synthesise
Analytical skills
Problem solving skills
People Management skills
Operational Management skills
Written communication skills
Oral communication skills
Net worker
Have broad technical knowledge
Have specialist technical knowledge
Ability to work in teams
Ability for life-long learning
what alumni think is important for an engineering specialist
what engineering specialists say is important for their job
FIGURE 2. A comparison between the means of how important each competency is for the job of an engineering
specialist according to an engineering specialist and how important aerospace alumni think that competency is
for an engineering specialist. (1 = totally unimportant – 5 = very important)
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
4,5
5
Ability to synthesise
Analytical skills
Problem solving skills
People Management skills
Operational Management skills
Written communication skills
Oral communication skills
Net worker
Have broad technical knowledge
Have specialist technical knowledge
Ability to work in teams
Ability for life-long learning
what alumni think is important for an engineering manager
What engineering manager say is important for their job
FIGURE 3. A comparison between the means of how important each competency is for the job of an engineering
manager and how important aerospace alumni think that competency is for an engineering manager. (1 = totally
unimportant – 5 = very important)
6
3.3 Consequences for the Aerospace Curriculum
The findings of this research suggested that the aerospace curriculum needs to focus on three things to prepare
aerospace engineers better for their professional careers: a good basic grounding during the BSc in the
fundamental subjects of mathematics, structures and mechanics, the fundamental aerospace courses without too
much specialization, and ensure that the design of courses in both the BSc and MSc closely resembles the
professional working environment. In order to show students what research fields are available in terms of
specialization during the MSc phase it would be a good idea to imbed those in the educational projects in the
BSc phase.
Competencies such as networking skills, operational and people management skills and oral communication
skills must become an integral part of the curriculum as this research has shown that they affect the professional
success of aerospace alumni and that alumni feel that their degree aerospace engineering has not sufficiently
contributed to those skills. The research highly recommended to create opportunities in the aerospace curriculum
for students to develop and be assessed on networking skills as well as operational and people management
skills, for instance in a project based learning setting and by involving outsiders.
Although some of the competencies, such as working in teams, written reporting and oral presentation skills,
listed in this research had already been imbedded in student projects which were introduced after the assessed
period during a curriculum change in 1995, it was also found that these initiatives must not be abandoned but to
the contrary more competencies should be imbedded in those projects as well as other courses.
4 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Alumni are the third most important asset an institute of education has next to its students and its staff. However,
currently, especially in Europe, they are an underused asset. If institutes of engineering education are serious
about increasing their intake of students they would do well to involve their alumni more. This paper shows that
this can be done on different fronts:
First of all alumni should start playing a front role in Marketing and Public Relations so that young people have
clear role models when it comes to engineering. It should be clear to students that all the wonderful feasts of
design around them have been created by engineers and that there is room in the world for many more engineers
to create many more beautiful objects of engineering.
Second of all if our alumni become well known and get formally recognised for their achievement it will
favourably reflect on the academic status of institutions.
Thirdly, alumni can become an essential source of funding for institutes of education. In Europe a lot of the
educational funding is government based. With the ever growing geriatric population there is a considerable
chance that the funding by governments will decrease and that educational institutes in Europe like the United
Stated will become far more dependent on gifts in order to maintain the quality of their teaching and research.
Finally, the example described in the section above clearly demonstrates the added value of alumni research.
Alumni research with a view to improve the quality of the curriculum should be carried out on a much larger
scale than is currently the case. It is proposed here that alumni research into the needs of graduated engineers
should start to take place on a European wide scale to see what the competencies are that engineers need to work
in the increasingly European work place so that the engineering curricula in Europe can ensure these
competencies are included and that future European accreditation organisations can monitor their quality.
References
[1] Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2008). "Academic Ranking of World Universities". Institute of Higher
Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. http://www.arwu.org/. Retrieved on 5 March 2009.
[2] Landis, F. What is the real need for continuing education in the aerospace industry?, Engineering Education,
pages 893-897, May-June 1971.
[3] Klus, John P. and Jones, Judy A., Engineers involved in continuing Education: a Survey Analysis, American
Society for Engineering Education, 1975
7
[4] Engineering Accreditation Commission, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, Accreditation Board
for Engineering and Technology Inc. (ABET), Baltimore, 2000.
[5] Shoemaker, Donna (editor), Research in Alumni Relations – Surveying Alumni to Improve Your Programs,
Report on the 1998 Association for institutional Research (AIR)/CASE Alumni Research Conference, Council
for Advancement and Support of Education, 1999.
[6] Saunders-Smits, G.N., Study of Delft Aerospace Alumni, PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology, 2008
[7] Vermeulen-Kerstens, Lyanda, The study of Alumni- Professional Success, Commitment to the University
and the Role of the Academic learning environment, Lemma, Den Haag, 2006.
[8] QANU, Aerospace Engineering – Assessment of degree courses, Quality Assurance Netherlands
Universities, Utrecht, 2008.
