See also
Engineering Education and Management Research - PhD Research Projects
PhD research projects are currently available in the following areas. Some projects listed may also be suitable for the MSc by Research – please contact the member of academic staff involved if you are interested in the MSc by Research. Please note that funding opportunities, if available, are advertised on our Funding page.
- Emotional Intelligence and the Intrapreneur
- Employability Research in Engineering Students
- Memory, Learning & Retention and its impact on Pedagogy
- Projects and Internships Skills
Emotional Intelligence and the Intrapreneur
Tony Ward, email: aew6@york.ac.uk
Does the Emotional Intelligence of an individual affect whether they will be an entrepreneur or intrapreneur? The project will start by exploring the literature on Emotional Intelligence and prior studies linking EI with Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship. It is expected that a survey instrument will be designed to test the statistical relationship between EI and Entrepreneurial Intent and Venturing Self Efficacy. The impact of this research will be to enhance our understanding of the link between these and our ability to predict who might become an Entrepreneur/Inrapreneur.
Employability Research in Engineering Students
Tony Ward, email: aew6@york.ac.uk
Why don't students engage with PDP and Career Planning? What would encourage students to engage? This project will start by looking at the literature on employability and the different interpretations on it (some of the common ones being: as a transition from HE to first job; as preparation for employment; as preparation for a longer term career), it will then move to the design of a survey to understand the influencing factors, their relative strengths and how they might group. The impact of the research will be to enhance our understanding of student engagement (lack of) and how HE can align its offer to meet the actual needs.
Memory, Learning & Retention and its impact on Pedagogy
Tony Ward, email: aew6@york.ac.uk
This project will explore the theories of memory and information learning and retention and its impact on pedagogy. Existing models of human memory and of learning will be reviewed with the objective of consolidating what is already known into a unifying model or to create a novel model. The impact will be to confirm or lead to changes to the way subjects are taught in HE.
Projects and Internships Skills
Tony Ward, email: aew6@york.ac.uk
Projects and Internships (Work Experience) (PI) experiences are used in Engineering Education programmes to provide students with an opportunity to practice their skills, gain valuable real life experience and enhance their self-efficacy. This research will explore PI experiences from the skills development, support and post activity added value perspectives. The commonly used meta-competences of PIs (including employability) will be decomposed to a set of generic base skills, the perception of importance, level of development, support and value of these will then be tested through questionnaires. Responses will be obtained from students, academics and industrial placement providers pre and post the activity. This data will allow a statistical analysis of fine grain data relating to PIs. Results of the findings will be used to optimize the preparatory training, support during and maximizing of value gained by students from PI experiences.
Postgraduate Admissions Tutor: Dr. Steve Smith
Tel: (+44) 01904 324485