Monitoring Student Success Rate at the Undergraduate Study of the Faculty of Civil Engineering,...

Monitoring Student Success Rate

at the Undergraduate Studyof the Faculty of Civil

Engineering, Zagreb University

1V. Dragcevic1Vice-Dean for Teaching, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University

of Zagreb

Engineering Education – The Bologna Process “3 years later”

November 8-10, 2007 Zagreb, Croatia

UNIVERSITY of ZAGREB

FACULTY of CIVIL ENGINEERINGENGINEERING EDUCATION - THE BOLOGNA PROCESS “3 YEARS LATER”

The Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb in the

Bologna process Adjusted its curricula in accordance to the type, level and duration of study,

the ECTS credit system and academic titles At the proposal of the National Council for Higher Education, the minister

of education issued the accreditation in June, 2005 for the implementation of a three year undergraduate study (180 ECTS

credits) for two year graduate study in the fields of geotechnics, hydrotechnics,

structures, construction management, materials, transportation engineering and theory of construction modelling (120 ECTS credits)

This year the accreditation was issued for postgraduate studies

doctoral studies which offer specialisation in 7 fields (180 ECTS credits) specialised studies which offer specialisation in 6 fields (60 ECTS credits)

The reformed undergraduate instruction was started, simultaneously with other faculties of Zagreb University, in academic year 2005/06.



Instruction organization According to Statute of the Faculty (October, 2005) Instruction lasts 44 working weeks:

2 semesters with 15 teaching weeks each 14 weeks for consultations, exam preparation and exams three examination periods: winter, summer and autumn, each lasting 4

weeks minimum 14 day interval between the re-taken exams for the same course every examination period offers 4 examination dates for each course



Student Success Rate The educational reform is a sensitive and complex pedagogical and

didactic issue The objective evaluation requires constant monitoring and analysis

of teaching process from the very start The student success rate monitoring system was introduced

it takes into account the specific features of the studies offered by the Faculty of Civil Engineering

Bodies: Teaching Committee Quality Guarantee Committee (established 2006) Year Councils

Goals: survey students and teachers monitoring student success rate



The analysis of the university student survey

Three student surveys have been conducted (summer semester 2005/06, winter and summer semesters of school year 2006/07)

The Quality Guarantee Committee reported on the results of the one of 2005/06 school year to the Faculty Council:

the survey was filled out by 30% of enrolled students (filling out surveys is optional for students)

for 8 members of teaching staff and 7 courses 75,2% surveyed students stated that they have attended more than 70% of

lectures, and only 6% attended less than 30% of lectures at the beginning of instruction 53,3% expressed mild, 36% high and 10,7%

low interest in the contents of the course their dominant grade was good (3), which was expected






STUDENT EVALUATION OF TEACHING STAFF

Question

Average grade

Faculty of Civil Engineering

University of Zagreb

Expertise 3,86 4,14

Quality of instruction 3,10 3,68

Rapport with students 4,13 4,23

STUDENT EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTION

Faculty of Civil Engineering

University of Zagreb

Average grade 3,59 3,68


The lowest grades for the quality of instruction! WHY?

Instruction of most courses should be conducted in smaller groups especially for design, construction and laboratory exercises

Impossible - the premises and the teaching staff are limited (teaching is conducted in all the teaching rooms, morning and afternoon, as well as on Saturdays)

Timetable - some students have longer brakes, study room at the faculty library is too small for all the students wishing to study during long breaks

Lecture and drawing rooms are not adequately equipped with computers for the number of students attending courses

Laboratory equipment is not on a sufficient level or the instruction is not of high quality due to large student groups



The Faculty of Civil Engineering does not generally vary from the average grades of the University of Zagreb that is from the general state of the University.

Monitoring student success rate

For “clean” enrolment generation includes the following: Student pass rate during semester

meeting signature requirements pass rate in pre-exams during semester (part of exam exemption)

Pass rate into higher year of study – exams passed



Student pass rate during semester

The Faculty Council: brought the Decree which prescribes the study system of undergraduate study brings Execution Plan defining the requirements for courses at the beginning

of every semester For lecturers' signatures students have to:

attend and actively participate in minimum 75% of lectures attend and actively participate in minimum 100% of exercises pass pre-exams (25%) or written programs for exercises pre-exams – 1-3 regular per course and min. one makeup pre-exam

For pass an exam segment student have to collect 60% on each pre-exams Monitoring student success rate during semester includes the

following: Verification of student attendance Analysis of pass rate in pre-exams



Verification of student attendance

LECTURES - in various manners (no electronic control system, occasional “blitz” checks with attendance lists or with cards signed by students, not check due to the lack of time)

EXERCISES - attendance is strictly controlled PROBLEMS:

The significant increase in students attending lectures has been caused by the regulation (requires to attend lectures which they have previously failed)

For that reason some courses have a 50% more students It resulted in instruction carried out in two shifts for all study years

(on former undergraduate study only first year instruction was conducted in two shifts)

The space has remained the same as well as the number of teaching staff



Analysis of pass rate in pre-exams



Courses Average pass [%]Contents Study year/

number of coursesSignature collected

Part of exam exemption

General basicMathematics, physics, geometry, information science etc.

I / 8 91,8 26,4II / 1 85,0 47,0III - -

Specialised basic(2 elective courses)building construction, geodesy, materials etc.)

I / 2 83,5 42,5II / 12 80,4 47,6

III - -

Specialised(2 elective courses)structures, transportation engineering, geotechnics etc.)

I no noII / 2 95,5 71III - -

Other(elective courses)

I/6 96,7 69,3II no no

PROBLEM: Growing instruction obligations (grate number of pre-exams - winter

semester, undergraduate study, 56 regular pre-exams and 28 makeup exams) Not enough space and number of teaching staff

Measures to improve student pass rate during

semester New Bodies

First Year Council and Second Year Council were established Third Year Council will be established bodies consist of all the lecturers teaching students in respective study years

and of one student representative for each course of a respective study year they are counselling bodies to the Teaching Committee

Suggestions of these bodies, The Teaching Committee has proposed, and the Faculty Council authorised the guidelines for pre-exam as follows:

pre-exams are part of the timetable (not always possible) more demanding pre-exams should not be taken within the same week there shouldn't be more than two pre-exams during a week pre-exams should not be taken in late afternoon pre-exams can be taken on free Saturdays two pre-exams should not be taken on the same day



Monitoring pass rate into higher year of study

Based on the data for the students enrolling in the first year in school year 2005/06 and 2006/07

They have been divided into two categories: Successful students – who have been awarded 60 ECTS credits in the first

study year (120 ECTS credits in the second year) Less successful students – who have been awarded less than 60 ECTS credits

in the first study year (less than 120 ECTS credits in the second year) For both groups the following has been taken into account:

Enrolment period Rank in the entrance examination Type of secondary school graduated from Residence Status (full-time student or paying student)

For less successful students the data has been collected about the courses they have failed.






Pass rate into a higher study year for generation enrolled in undergraduate study in school year 2005/06

Enrolm

ent period

Rank StatusEnrolled after entrance exam in school year

2005/06

Awarded 60 ECTS credits in school year

2005/06

Awarded 120 ECTS credits in school year

2006/07

Num

ber%

Average grade

Num

ber

%

Average grade

I.sum

mer

1 - 50 full-time 44 24 55 3,87 22 50 3,8950 - 100 full-time 41 18 44 3,88 12 29 3,65

100 - 150 full-time 44 10 23 2,82 2 5 2,90150 - 200 full-time 48 3 6 3,10 0 0 -

II. sum

mer

1 - 8 full-time 8 5 62 3,62 3 38 3,669 - 42 Paying student 30 7 23 3,30 1 3 3,6043 - 81 Paying student 35 6 17 3,00 2 6 3,31


generation enrolled in undergraduate study in school year 2005/06 The pass rate into a second year of study with 60 ECTS credits was 29%, it

grows to 45% if students who were awarded more than 55 ECTS credits (one exam not passed) are added

Compared to the pass rate in the former 4 year graduate study it is an improvement, the pass rate was between 30 and 35%

Pass rate into the third year of students with 120 ECTS credits is 17%, that is 26% if students with more than 110 ECTS credits are taken into account

For less successful students (not passed all the required courses by the start of the school year 2006/07) has noted the following:

a large majority of students have passed elective courses (94-98%) winter semester courses have been passed by more than 70% of students three courses of summer semester have not been passed by 50-67% of students

generation enrolled in undergraduate study in school year 2006/07 The pass rate in the second year of study -similar results as mentioned

beforeUNIVERSITY of ZAGREB


Measures to maintain high quality of instruction and improve student pass rate into higher year of study

The Faculty Council: has decreased the enrolment quota for the school year 2007/08, from usual

250 to 185 students, which was authorised by the University of Zagreb was decided to enrol students by semester

A number of associates and students tutors have been hired and financed by the Faculty for the courses with lower than average pass rate



Conclusions This year runs a four year undergraduate (old) study for the last time. Next school year will start a new graduate study (significantly larger number of

courses than before). This will further deteriorate an already bad situation (space and teaching staff). The new reform of the higher education and teaching procedure:

is a complex issue and objective evaluation requires systematic monitoring and analysis of the teaching procedure from the very beginning

its real advantages and disadvantages will be evident in distant future a lot of effort has to be taken to recognise its drawbacks in order to avoid larger

mistakes and improve and develop its advantages. The Student Assembly on our Faculty has given positive feedback to the

mentioned facts and the measures taken at our faculty. The positive results are impossible to achieve without the cooperation of all the

participants in the process and without the understanding, support and funding of the University of Zagreb and the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport.



Thanks for your attention !



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