The Effectiveness of Humanities Courses in Producing Well-Balanced Engineering Graduates: A Study on Engineering Universities in Bangladesh

Md. Rabiul Islam, Md. Abu Bokar Siddique, Normah Omar, Kashfia Reza Tonni, Shoaib Islam

Abstract

The study strives to generate deep insights regarding the effectiveness of humanities courses that have been integrated into the academic curricula of engineering programs. The opinions of students and teachers surveyed from two leading engineering universities in Bangladesh. The results reflected that humanities aspects have been integrated into the engineering curricula to a limited extent. The t-test results indicated that there are significant variations in the opinion given by the two groups regarding the improvement of students’ soft skills, socio-economic-environmental responsibilities, and mental-thinking process. Students identified that the inability of some teachers to grow interest in the course and relate course contents to the real-life world is hindering desired benefits. Similarly, teachers identified factors such as lack of student interest, inadequate logistics and administrative support, short-sighted curricula, over course load, and low status from the engineering departments are hindering the effectiveness of humanities courses to produce well-rounded engineering graduates. Thus, concerned authorities need to realize the fact that humanities courses are an essential part of a well-rounded education for engineering programs

Conclusion

The present study strives to generate deep insights regarding the effectiveness of humanities courses that are integrated into the academic curricula of engineering programs aims to produce well-balanced engineering students. Extensive literature both from the academic and industry point of views were reviewed to understand the importance and benefits of integrating humanities courses into the engineering curricula. The literature reviews also helped to identify factors that impede the teaching-learning of humanities courses for engineering students. Two groups of respondents (student and teacher) were selected to conduct a questionnaire survey. The study results show that humanities aspects have been integrated into the engineering curricula to a limited extent. The results of the t-test indicate that there are significant variations in the opinion given by the two groups regarding the improvement of students’ soft skills, socio-economic-environmental responsibilities, and mental-thinking process. This means that there is a gap in the teachers’ expectations regarding the benefits of the courses and students’ perception of the benefits they received from the humanities courses. Students opined that the inability of some teachers to grow interested in the course and relate the topic to the real-life world, lack of field visits, and classroom environment are hindering the benefits. As Bangladesh has the vision to become a developed country, it is high time to realize that humanities courses are an essential part of a well-rounded education for engineering programs.

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