ECE first: An attempt to reinstate the favorability of ECE program

Author

Al Shidhani, Ali ; Al Maashri, Ahmed ; Al-Abri, Dawood ; Bait-Shiginah, Fahad ; Al-Hinai, Salem

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Sultan Qaboos Univ., Muscat, Oman

fYear

2015

fDate

1-4 Feb. 2015

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

The department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is one of four departments in the College of Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Sultanate of Oman. The department admits around 2 5% to 30% of engineering students every semester. Specialization selection is based on students´ discretion and academic achievement. From its inception, ECE accommodated the largest share of students in the college and was usually favored by students compared to other departments. Nevertheless, it was observed that students refrain from selecting ECE as a first choice in the last couple of years. In 2005, 33% of students applying for specialization chose ECE as their first choice. Today, the number is south to 13%. This paper studies the reasons behind students´ aversion from ECE and proposes countermeasures to turn the tide.

Keywords

electrical engineering education; electronic engineering education; College of Engineering; ECE; Electrical and Computer Engineering; SQU; Sultan Qaboos University; Sultanate of Oman; academic achievement; students discretion; Availability; Computers; Conferences; Educational institutions; Engineering students; Interviews; Market research; curriculum; education; electrical and computer engineering; engineering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

GCC Conference and Exhibition (GCCCE), 2015 IEEE 8th

Conference_Location

Muscat

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEEEGCC.2015.7060057

Filename

7060057