Winning program integrates formal learning into workplace

The challenge was to find a way for University of Queensland engineering undergraduates to gain more meaningful industry experience without extending the length of study or altering the academic standards in the degree program.

What emerged is the Undergraduate Site Learning Program, which enables final-year students to manage their learning and assignment objectives while working in a professional setting.

The Undergraduate Site Learning Program has won Category 3 of UQ`s Awards for the Enhancement of Student Learning, for “curriculum team-based innovative and practical approach to the enhancement of the quality of teaching and learning”. The awards will be presented tonight at a Brisbane Customs House ceremony at 6.30pm.

Team leader Professor David Radcliffe said USLP is a work-based learning program that enables final-year students to simultaneously consolidate their technical knowledge, enhance their problem formulation and solving, communication and teamwork.

In so doing, it also addresses the call from the engineering profession to develop a broader set of attributes in graduates, such as lifelong learning abilities and knowing where they “fit” in industry.

As part of their engineering degree, undergraduates must gain 60 days’ industry experience but this work is getting harder to arrange, is subject to cyclic economic fluctuations and the quality of the experience varies.

Other means of gaining industry experience, by having co-operative work placements in which students spend 6-12 months in industry during their studies, extend the degree program and are not connected directly to the university program.

The new USLP option aligns the final-year thesis and assignment work to “real” work, and gives students full academic credit for their placement without extending the duration of the degree.

Professor Radcliffe said USLP has not compromised the technical and intellectual demands of the engineering course, at the same time as ensuring graduates have a smooth transition to industry because they are well-oriented to contemporary engineering practice.

“Something magical doesn’t happen between the end of university and the first day at work, and this is why more students are now seeking active engagement with industry through the site learning program,” Professor Radcliffe said.

He said USLP demands more of the engineering student than just being on campus and is, coincidentally, proving to be a winner with female engineering undergraduates.

At UQ, female students comprise about 17 percent of the engineering cohort but females make up 30 percent of the cohort taking up the USLP final-year option.

Radcliffe suggests this may indicate females are more mature, they have made a conscious decision to do engineering and therefore have drive and focus on the outcome they want, they are not phased by the challenge and have the independence required to manage the dual pressures of study and work.

He said USLP challenges staff and students and produces outcomes that both the alumni and the industry value. It was developed by a team of university and industry people and was made possible through the Thiess-UQ Strategic Learning Partnership established in 2001.

There have been 55 USLP placements to date, extending to over 80 in 2003, from the following engineering disciplines - mining, minerals processing, civil, environmental, mechanical, chemical, software engineering and new in 2003 electrical and computer systems engineering.

For more information, contact Professor Radcliffe on 0418 985 733 or 3365 3579