Analysis of requirement of supplementary courses in social and human sciences for students and graduates of electrical engineering

Abstract

This study probed into the opinions of teachers and electrical engineers (working at electric industry) on the importance of providingsome courses of law, administration, communications and accounting for electrical engineering students. This applied studyfell into the category of descriptive/surveyresearch. Statistical population consisted of all teachersof Electrical Engineering faculty atShiraz University andall electrical engineers of Fars Regional Electric Company. Sixty-nineengineers are selectedas a sample while all teachers (16 teachers) answered the questions. To collect the data, a questionnaire is designed and distributed. Questionnaire validity is tested by face/ content approach while its reliability is confirmed by Cronbach's alpha and split-half methods. To analyze the data, some methods including Kolmogorov/Smirnov, binomial, t-test and Friedman are performed. Findings showed that from the viewpoint of teachers, accounting, correspondence courses are of moderate importance, and other courses including technical reporting, law, employer relations, management, intellectual property, environment and energy are very important. Despitethisfact,electrical engineers believed that legal and accounting courses are less importantthan other courses. Furthermore, teachers opposite to electrical engineers, put the legal and intellectual property courses ina higher level of importance.

Keywords

• higher education electrical engineering electrical engineering training electrical engineering complementary courses