Are We Promoting a Surface Approach to Learning During the First Year of Engineering Educations?

The legislated goals for Master of Science in Engineering educations include goals like having the ability to critically, independently and creatively identify, formulate and handle complex problems as well as participate in research and development work and thus contribute to knowledge development. One might therefore argue that these educations are required to promote a deep approach to learning.
This paper investigates to what degree new students at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University, Sweden, uses surface and deep learning approaches before being admitted and how these learning approaches changes during the first semester at our faculty. The questionnaire used- the Study Process Questionnaire designed by Biggs, was handed out to all new engineering students at LTH. The students were asked to answer the questions based on their experiences during their last year of studies before being admitted to LTH. After the first semester, the same group of students was asked to answer the same questionnaire based on their experiences during their first semester at LTH.
Of the 1106 new students 989 answered the first questionnaire (89 %) and 675 the second (61 %). 599 students answered both questionnaires (54 %). It can be concluded that the average student does not have a pronounced surface approaches to learning before being admitted to LTH. The use of a deep approach to learning was slightly more pronounced. After one semester at LTH there is a statistically significant decrease in deep learning approaches for both genders and for nearly all programs.