An analysis of Ph.D. examiners’ reports in engineering

In recent years, there have been increasing calls for an overall transformation of the nature of engineering Ph.D. programs and the way theses are assessed. There exists a need to understand the examination process to ensure the best quality outcome for candidates in engineering. The work we present in this paper uses data collected between 2003 and 2010 for a total of 1220 Australian Ph.D. theses by analysing examiner reports. Our analysis indicates that Ph.D. theses in engineering, N?=?106, differ considerably from those in other fields in areas such as gender of candidates and examiners and the examiners’ geographical location. We also found that assessment areas such as significance and contribution of the thesis, publications arising from the thesis, breadth, depth and recency of the literature review and communication and editorial correctness are areas in which the proportion of text of engineering examiners' comments differs significantly from other fields.     

A conceptual framework for job change

Change related to the job is identified as an exigent issue in the field of career development. This paper presents an effort to conceptualize a job change framework. The intent is increase awareness, generate discussion, and stimulate empirical research in this area.The conceptual framework for job change has been predicated on client concerns. The framework involves the unique relationship of several life factors which influence individual job change, and provides a means for systematic personal decision-making. A schematic diagram is also included as a tool that can be used for counseling and research applications.     

University Students' Writing: Types of Errors and Some Comparisons Across Disciplines

The purpose of this study was to identify the writing errors made by 310 first year university students in 13 disciplines using a checklist of five writing error categories, each with a number of sub‐categories. The overall median error rate was 3S.0 errors per 1000 words. Punctuation and capitalisation was by far the most common category of error, and sentence structure, word usage, spelling and vocabulary followed in descending order of frequency. Law and Economics students exhibited the highest error rates while Geography, Mechanical Engineering, Philosophy, English, Statistics, Linguistics, Geology, History and Sociology students had error rates near the median value, and French and Psychology students made fewest errors. The major error sub‐categories that best indicated difference between good and poor writers were the use of commas and some aspects of sentence construction.