Motivation, technical achievement and communication skills in engineering degree projects under the european higher education area

Abstract

To which extent are the final marks of an Engineering Degree Project determined by the technical quality of the work? To which extent by the horizontal skills of the student? The educational paradigm of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) integrates both sides. Inevitably, the subjects included in the curriculum of an engineering degree are mainly technical, and prone to exercising and developing self-learning and in-depth, technical knowledge. The Degree Project, on the other side, is necessarily multidisciplinary, and usually develops loosely defined problems of wider scope. Apart from the work being supervised by a teacher, frequently projects are carried out as part of larger contexts in research teams. The Degree Project is judged by a panel, which will consider the written final report provided by the student, in combination with an oral session, including a presentation and a short turn of questions and answers on the topic. It is clear that the understanding of the work by the panel is filtered by how effectively the student is able to communicate, which will bring into the final mark a certain measure of soft skills and personality traits: self-confidence, articulation, body language, and attitude, among others. This work, on a basis of 18 degree projects, concludes that the effectiveness of the oral session is critical to obtain a high mark (9/10), while other factors, difficult to dissect, as well as certain degree of randomness, intervene on the higher marks.