Disciplinary differences and implications for the development of generic skills: a study of engineering and business students’ perceptions of generic skills

ABSTRACT

Although previous research has examined how generic skills and disciplinary contexts are related, such investigation has not been conducted from students’ perspectives. Implications of disciplinary differences for the design of a generic skills curriculum have also remained unexplored. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to 502 first-year engineering and business students from a Hong Kong university which explored their perceived importance and competence level of their generic skills, as well as their motivation towards developing these skills. The results of engineering and business students were compared which revealed some disciplinary differences. Substantial differences were found in the importance and competency ratings on IT skills and business students gave significantly higher importance ratings on most generic skills than engineering students. This study will help guide curriculum design that leverages the benefits of interdisciplinary programmes and incorporates generic skills as part of learning outcomes within disciplinary contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Generic skills
• employability
• higher education
• curriculum design
• interdisciplinary

Acknowledgements

Any opinions, findings and conclusions expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agency. The authors wish to acknowledge the faculties and students who participated in this study and are grateful to Ms Lillian Luk and Ms Veronica Lai for their assistance in the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Cecilia K. Y. Chan is the Head of Professional Development and Associate Professor in the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Hong Kong. She has conducted research on topics such as the development and assessment of generic skills in different disciplines. Cecilia holds a PhD in Engineering from Trinity College, a postgraduate diploma and an MA in Higher Education. She also held a Fellowship from King’s College London. Dr Chan has involved in over 40 research/project grants worldwide.

Dr Emily T. Y. Fong is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include generic skills teaching and learning, intercultural competence and professional identity formation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council under the General Research Fund [numbers 17610215 and 741611].