Architectural education shares much in common with engineering, including the use of a culminating capstone experience in the final year. The form of this experience varies, with the research-based thesis and final-year project being most common. This paper explores the literature on traditions of enquiry and the meaning of research in various…

Today, in the realm of Industry 4.0, vastly diverse internet of things (IoT) technologies are integrated everywhere, not to mention included in academic programs in schools and universities. Domain ratio of the final year projects in Universiti Teknologi MARA exposes a staggering hype in IoT as compared to other domains despite not having IoT…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to implement and evaluate active learning strategies to support engineering students in the development of research competences, contributing to the growing need for a closer relationship between research and teaching. Design/methodology/approach: This study was developed using an action research approach. The…

The financial cost to individuals of higher education is now regularly exceeding £50k before maintenance in the UK; consequently, students are more concerned than ever that their degree should offer value for money when they enter the jobs marketplace. Overshadowed by long-term debt, lack of career options and job offerings with low salary,…

Every three years, the Organisation for European Cooperation and Development evaluates the scientific competence of European students. Recent results have demonstrated that scientific competence in Spain is somewhat underdeveloped, which underscores the need to apply educational methodologies that favour the development of said competence. This…

In this study we explored the experiences of students who completed a project-based, interdisciplinary capstone course that was offered at a large university in Southern Ontario, Canada. To do so, we interviewed students after they completed the course, adopting a constructivist perspective and a phenomenological approach. Interview transcripts…

While research on competence-based assessment has grown, scholars have conducted fewer studies on an integrative view of competence acquisition, in the context of the final year project, that have particularly addressed the meta-competence approach. This paper examines undergraduate business students' perceived acquisition of competencies during…

Engineering accreditation bodies express a strong consensus that in addition to technical and scientific skills, engineering education also needs to promote the development of professional skills. In general, team-based projects are considered to be valuable approaches to develop such skills and have been extensively added to engineering…

Embedding employability in higher education is a key Teaching Excellence Framework requirement, and psychology departments across the UK recognise that this is indeed important for students' employability prospects. The Final Year Research Project is the most important independent piece of work that psychology undergraduate students undertake,…

Contribution: Internships designed to provide training and an initial period of contact with industry, prior to a computer science engineering capstone project, have a very positive impact on both industry and academic capstone projects. Background: Internships and capstone projects are widely used to integrate work-related learning in computer…

A capstone project is an extensive learning experience traditionally developed during a student's final academic year. Assessing such a complex assignment involves several challenges and is usually based upon the evaluations of at least two different people: the capstone project advisor, and one or more other assessors. Quantitative studies…

The gap between industry needs and engineering graduates' competences is being tackled by project-based courses, which also help to develop key innovation competences to address current societal challenges. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding about what innovation competences are developed through the different types of project-based…

In this paper, we consider the perceived effectiveness of using industry-based transdisciplinary, complex problems as a vehicle for final year undergraduate mathematics students to apply their knowledge and skills in realistic settings, preparing them for the world of work. The discussion centres on a recently designed, implemented and evaluated…

Capstone projects are common in undergraduate programmes, providing students with a culminating educational experience designed to draw on the knowledge and skills accumulated over the course of their studies. While there are many benefits to capstone projects, they are not without challenges. In particular, when these projects are conducted in…

The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic required educational institutions to adapt face-to-face to remote teaching. This study reports the experience in the first semester of 2020 for a Chemical Engineering Capstone Design Course at the University of Campinas in Brazil. In this course, senior year students develop a group project, in which they simulate…