Magda Konieczna

Comp eng students dissatisfied: survey

appeared on uwstudent.org April 13, 2003

Most third-year computer engineering students wouldn't choose their program if they had to choose again, according to a recent student-run survey. The survey, designed and implemented March 10 and 11 by 3A computer engineering student Ali Asaria, was born when a top computer engineering student, Vince Pereira, left the program in Winter 2003 because he felt that he was working hard and not learning enough.

The survey asked classmates how many hours they spend on different parts of school (studying, labs, etc.). It also asked about opinions regarding the electrical and computer engineering program, including what percentage of the work students feel contributes to their learning, whether they would recommend the program to high school students interested in engineering and whether the program has increased their own passion for engineering. Eighty-nine computer engineering students filled out the surveys.

Key results

•Students spend an average of seven hours per day on school outside of class
•Over 40% of students would not recommend the UW engineering program to high school students
•Almost 80% believe that workload in the program needs to be decreased to maximize students' education
•Less than 30% were satisfied with the academic quality of the computer engineering program.

Asaria said he was surprised by the results, but administrators in computer and electrical engineering said they were not unexpected. Asaria said he expected a distribution in responses, because he thought students at the top of the class were happy with the program.

He said, "I can say on some questions [the answers] were completely one-sided," citing in particular the answers to whether, given the opportunity to choose again, students would choose to attend UW electrical and computer engineering. "It was really surprising and the department really took notice."

Electrical and computer engineering chair Dr. Tony Vannelli said that similar problems have been observed in similar programs across the country. "I speak as a chairman that sees that other [electrical and computer engineering] chairmen are facing similar problems."

He said he believes that electrical and computer engineering programs at schools across the country are very demanding.

"There are a lot of busy electrical and computer engineering students [across the country]," he said.

While Vannelli said that he was not surprised with the results related to workload, he was surprised that students seemed disappointed with the program.

The motivation behind the survey, Asaria said, was the amount of what he calls "busy work," work that takes time but does not contribute to learning, in the program.

"Professors agreed that there was too much busy work that people weren't learning from just because no on had complained," he said. "It's easier for profs to continue doing what they always did.

"I hesitated to do anything [about workload problems] because I felt that this was a problem that students on the bottom end feel. When [Pereira] said that he was having the same problems and dropped out I realized that this was something that all students were feeling."