Steps to increase student engagement and retention in first year engineering

This paper details the changes undertaken to the introductory Bachelor of Engineering (BE) course Foundations of Engineering (ENGR101) at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand (VUW) to improve first year student engineering experience. A requirement of the BE is that a student obtains a B average over their core papers in Part I to progress with the degree. The paper also reports on student reactions to these changes based on information gained from surveys. It finds the introduced changes in 2011 increased the students passing with above average grade B from 45.3% to 50%, and further changes including the introduction of a major project in 2012 increased the pass rate to 63.4%