This paper was presented at the 2008 Engineering Conference - Innovation Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education.
In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis in the UK on the development of employability skills in our graduates and for more employer involvement in Higher Education to ensure the needs of industry are understood and reflected in the curriculum. Sponsorship of students during their degree studies is one way of bringing industry closer to education. Sponsorship is an opportunity for employers to maintain a close relationship with students and be involved in the education and initial training of professional engineers. The methodology for a research project being undertaken to determine the impact of sponsorship on students academic departments and industry partners is presented. The results of a series of surveys of final and first year students are also presented and preliminary conclusions drawn on the impact of sponsorship on student choice of programme its contribution to the achievement of learning outcomes the correlation of sponsorship and students’ employability and students’ expectations of sponsorship. In general more than 94% of students indicated that they have benefited from the sponsorship element of their programme and that they recommend sponsorship to the other students.
