The impact of a year in industry on academic outcomes in higher education (engineering)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Year-in-industry schemes provide new or enhanced skills beyond the academic environment, a context for consolidation for the academic skills and a maturity in the approach to subsequent studies. The present work aims to quantify the impact of the year in industry placement scheme on academic outcomes for engineering students according to whether or not they undertake a year in industry. The results show that the gain in grades is notable: +5.7% for students returning from placement to year 3 of a Bachelor. ANOVA tests show that the increase observed is not the result of expected variation. A detailed analysis reviews where in the curriculum, the benefits may be expressed. The analysis shows that the perception that students benefit from skills gained on the year in industry for their third-year project is mainly correct, but confounds causality and correlation. Finally, it is shown that students in lower grade categories prior to the placement benefit most from the year in industry. The year in industry in engineering is demonstrably beneficial to students. Some work remains to be done to define which competences are improved, or whether the gains are individual or quantifiable at the collective level with generalised trends.