D02P04

Post date: Sep 27, 2016 5:32:5 AM

Epistemological access to Engineering at CPUT

Presenter

Mark Jacobs works in the Faculty of Engineering at CPUT as the Coordinator for Extended Programmes. He is also a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics in the Electrical Engineering Department, teaching Mathematics on the  extended programme in the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests are  foundation, bridging and extended programmes and mathematics education. 

Abstract

What are the difficulties students experience when enrolling for a programme in engineering at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)? How do the departments and faculty management deal with these difficulties? How successful are they? 

This presentation attempts to answer these questions by showing examples of practice and policy in use at the CPUT engineering faculty for dealing with, essentially, epistemological access, as defined in the general literature in South Africa. By illustrating with examples of foundation provision in the extended programmes, this presentation will explore attempts to resolve difficulties with so called threshold courses and by reviewing data showing comparative results between regular and extended courses. 

This presentation will provide an overarching impression of the attempts in the Faculty of Engineering to deal with student difficulties with access into the engineering disciplines.