Outreach initiatives operated by universities for increasing interest in science and technology
Journal article, 2016
Since the 1990s, the low number of students choosing to study science and technology in higher education has been on the societal agenda and many initiatives have been launched to promote awareness regarding career options. The initiatives particularly focus on increasing enrolment in the engineering programmes. This article describes and compares eight European initiatives that have been established and operated by universities (and in some cases through collaboration with other actors in society). Each initiative is summarised in a short essay that discusses motivation, organisation, pedagogical approach, and activities. The initiatives are characterised by comparing the driving forces behind their creation, how the initiative activities relate to the activities at the university, size based on the number of participants and cost per participant and pedagogical framework. There seem to be two main tracks for building outreach activities, one where outreach activities are based on the university's normal activities, and one where outreach activities are designed specifically for the visiting students.
Outreach
engineering education
pre engineering education
outreach initiatives
Author
Lena Gumaelius
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Monica Almqvist
Lund University
Anna Árnadóttir
Lund University
A. Axelsson
Lund University
J. Alberto Conejero
Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)
José P. García-Sabater
Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)
Lene Klitgaard
Aalborg University
Cecilia Kozma
AlbaNova University Center
Julien Maheut
Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)
Juan Marin-Garcia
Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV)
Henrik Mickos
Per-Olof Nilsson
Chalmers, Applied Information Technology (Chalmers), Engineering Education Research - EER (Chalmers)
Agneta Norén
Stockholm University
Margarida Pinho-Lopes
University of Southampton
Manfred Prenzel
German Council of Science and Humanities
Technical University of Munich
Johanna Ray
Technical University of Munich
Torgny Roxå
Lund University
Mirjam Voss
TUMlab im Deutschen Museum
European Journal of Engineering Education
0304-3797 (ISSN) 1469-5898 (eISSN)
Vol. 41 6 589-622Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Pedagogy
DOI
10.1080/03043797.2015.1121468