Post-graduation Plans of Undergraduate BME Students: Gender, Self-efficacy, Value, and Identity Beliefs

Abstract

This study investigates career intentions and students' engineering attitudes in BME, with a focus on gender differences. Data from n = 716 undergraduate biomedical engineering students at a large public research institution in the United States were analyzed using hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis. Results revealed five clusters of intended post-graduation plans: Engineering Job and Graduate School, Any Job, Non-Engineering Job and Graduate School, Any Option, and Any Graduate School. Women were evenly distributed across clusters; there was no evidence of gendered career preferences. The main findings in regard to engineering attitudes reveal significant differences by cluster in interest, attainment value, utility value, and professional identity, but not in academic self-efficacy. Yet, within clusters the only gender differences were women's lower engineering academic self-efficacy, interest and professional identity compared to men. Implications and areas of future research are discussed.

Keywords: Bioengineering education; Biomedical engineering education; Career choice; Cluster analysis; Motivation; Survey; Women.

Figure 1

Dendrogram of BME students’ intended post-graduations plans. Colored blocking is superimposed on the dendrogram to visually segment and illustrate the branches of the 5-cluster solution.

Figure 2

Column graph of clusters by post-graduation plan variable. Y-axis is the mean of the post-graduation plan variable. X-axis are the labels for the clusters; total indicates the average from the total sample. To the right of the chart is the legend.

Figure 3

Column graph of engineering attitudes by cluster. Y-axis is the mean of the engineering attitude variables in standard deviation (SD) units. X-axis are the clusters variables. To the right of the chart is the legend.