Effects of curriculum organisation on study progress in engineering studies

Abstract

Procrastination and time investment are important issues in the study of student performance and progress. Previous research on these issues has mainly concentrated upon individual differences between students in personality and time management skills. However, study progress depends not only on student characteristics but also on the organisation of the curriculum. A multilevel analysis that was carried out on data concerning 1578 engineering students on twelve different programmes provides evidence that variation in study progress can partly be attributed to curriculum organisation. The spread of study activities over the year, instruction characteristics and examination characteristics were found to have effects on progress. This implies that institutes in higher education may improve their students' progress to some extent by means of efficient curriculum organisation.