Abstract
English medium instruction (EMI) in university-level engineering programmes is becoming the norm globally as well as in Turkey due to the internationalisation and job opportunities in this field. However, research about the job prospects among the engineering graduates who studied in EMI programmes are quite limited compared to the presence and dominance of EMI implementation in these programmes. To address this gap, this study with a causal-comparative research design focused on the predictive power of studying in different EMI engineering subjects in terms of graduates’ job prospects. 139 engineering graduates took part in this study representing three academic subjects and two different EMI models (i.e., full vs. partial). All participants filled out an online survey that inquired into their job prospects. Proportional Odds Logistic Regression (POLR) analysis was used to determine the differences among academic subjects and EMI models. Findings of our study revealed that different EMI academic subjects in the field of engineering had different prospects in the job market. Moreover, differences in the same academic subject that employed a different EMI model were also observed. This study builds up on the limited scientific knowledge about the contribution of our higher education institutions to the career prospects of their graduates.
Highlights
English Medium Instruction (EMI), which entails “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not English” (Macaro, 2018; p. 18), has become a pervasive trend in many higher education (HE) settings all around the world such as Japan (Galloway, Kriukow, & Numajiri, 2017) China (Fang, 2018), Europe (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014) as well as Turkey (Curle, Yuksel, Soruç, & Altay, 2020)
The results indicated that full EMI electrical engineering, the partial EMI civil engineering, and the partial EMI mechanical engineering academic subjects were the subjects that explained the case in these two types of employment status
This study focused on the impact of EMI studies on the students’ careers after graduation in various engineering academic subjects
Summary
English Medium Instruction (EMI), which entails “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects (other than English itself) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not English” (Macaro, 2018; p. 18), has become a pervasive trend in many higher education (HE) settings all around the world such as Japan (Galloway, Kriukow, & Numajiri, 2017) China (Fang, 2018), Europe (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014) as well as Turkey (Curle, Yuksel, Soruç, & Altay, 2020). Other reasons include the demand to reach more domestic and international students (e.g., Dafouz, 2018; Doiz, Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2013), expanding the prestige of educational programs (e.g., Nguyen, Walkinshaw & Pham, 2017), and attaining a reputable status in the international market (e.g., Graddol, 2006). Another commonly articulated reason is attaining better job prospects after graduation (e.g., Huang, 2011), which is the focus of this study. Building on the current research that examines the interplay between EMI and jobs prospects (Altay, 2020; Altay & Ercin, 2020), this study investigates the impact of EMI studies on the graduates’ job prospects by comparing different academic subjects and full (i.e., 100%) and partial (i.e., 30%) EMI models as defined by Macaro (2018)
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