Academics’ beliefs towards holistic competency development and assessment: A case study in engineering education

Abstract

There has been a longstanding discussion in the literature on employers’ dissatisfaction with the engineering curriculum in preparing work-ready graduates. Given that the development of engineering students’ holistic competencies is important to their employability and whole-person-development, Hong Kong has placed much emphasis on students’ holistic competency development (HCD) in its curriculum reforms in the past two decades. However, it remains unknown how engineering academics’ beliefs have changed under mounting top-down pressure. Therefore, this study examines the beliefs of Hong Kong engineering academics about HCD and the contextual factors influencing their beliefs via six interviews. Generally, academics’ beliefs were supportive to various curricular efforts to develop students’ holistic competencies, but they also expressed concerns about the value and assessment of these competencies. It was found that academics simply follow the top-down reforms without acknowledging the value of holistic competencies. Implications for deepening curriculum reforms for HCD in engineering education are provided.