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This work arose from the perception that it would be extremely useful in delivering and improving first-year undergraduate engineering modules if the staff could be given a profile of the knowledge and understanding of the incoming student cohort. This knowledge and understanding is usually not well captured or described by prior qualifications, because it would ideally embrace both technical understanding and also practical skills and a general understanding of the societal context in which engineering is being taught. We therefore developed a set of web-based diagnostic and support tools designed to identify more clearly the attributes of students entering engineering programmes in the UK in 2010 and to support their transition into university.
The project team devised 50 questions for incoming students, developed a web-based tool for their delivery during the first two weeks of the academic year and an initial data query tool for retrieval of the resultant data. This questionnaire has been run with more than 300 students in four universities and some initial conclusions have been drawn. There are differences in detail but these four first year student cohorts are quite similar in their incoming knowledge and skills.