A quality process for assessing mathematics in a study programme

We present two methodologies to assess the use of mathematics in a study programme. Firstly, we use a relatively simple methodology to assess how students show their ability to use mathematics in their degree project reports. Secondly, we present a methodology to assess how mathematics is used during a study programme. We have applied the first methodology on the mathematics content in 114 randomly chosen bachelor degree reports from 6 different study programmes within the fields of electrical engineering and computer engineering at KTH. For the 3-year bachelor degree programmes in computer engineering, we find clear deficits in the way students use mathematics in their bachelor degree reports as compared to the other programmes in our study. Through the second methodology, we were able to relate the deficits in the bachelor degree reports to a programme structure where skills in mathematics have not been sufficiently demanded in the engineering courses of the programme. QC 20180314