A Comparison of students’ attitudes and attainment on an enterprise module for scientists and engineers

Abstract

We compared data from an enterprise course aimed at scientists and engineers using the Unit Evaluation Questionnaire, coursework marks and qualitative feedback quotes with the aim of identifying any issues for embedding enterprise and entrepreneurship units in science and engineering degrees. Enterprise courses in many universities are often offered as units within other degree programmes which fulfill chartered bodies requirements for enterprise education and for employability. Whilst broadly accepted to be successful, others have reported students views on enterprise education be mixed as they feel its out of their comfort zone, and some are not open to studying units outside of their main subject, however we found student results and satisfaction to be at least as good as faculty and departmental norms. Qualitative comments suggest despite initial misgivings, they enjoy applying their subject knowledge to entrepreneurial issues and appreciate it not being a generic course. Students were not adversely affected by different assessment techniques and performed similarly to departmental/faculty averages. We found that it was key for courses to be tailored to science and engineering students such as by allowing a company from their subject area for their assignments and giving science examples which gave better engagement and feedback.