ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION - VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 - Shared Ownership of an Engineering Success Centre to Support Students and Develop Leaders

Oct 15, 2026

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ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION explores how shared ownership, implemented through a student-driven shared leadership model, supports first-year engineering students during the 2020–2021 academic year at the University of Prince Edward Island. The paper frames engineering attrition as driven by insufficient academic support, low self-confidence, and limited transition preparation, which intensify during the pandemic. It documents the Engineering Success Centre’s evolution, priorities, and inaugural-year outcomes, supported by a literature review on retention and shared leadership.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Literature Review

Retention

Shared Leadership Models

| | Ad | vances in Engineering Edu | cation | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Transitioning from high school to university is an especially stressful time for students. They must adapt to a new learning environment, take on adult responsibilities, and develop new social 30 2023: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Shared Ownership of an Engineering Success Centre to Support Students and Develop Leaders networks (Taylor, Doane, and Eisenberg 2014, 105) . The persistence rate in engineering programs hovers around 75% for first-year engineering students, and on average, 55% of engineering students graduate within six years (ASEE 2016, 9–10) . The lack of academic support, individualistic nature of engineering programs, low self-confidence levels of students, and lack of preparation from highschool contribute to the attrition rate (Geisinger and Raman 2013, 918) . During a global pandemic, these factors are amplified as students and instructors must adapt to a changing learning environment (Browning et al. 2021, 1) . Students’mental, emotional, and physical reality is constantly shifting, and instructors are scrambling to provide the necessary support. To support engineering students throughout the 2020-2021 academic year at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) in Atlantic Canada, the first-year design instructor was asked to develop an academic support centre. The administration gave the Centre a mandate to provide targeted support for first-year students and develop leaders by employing students, with the long-term goal of improving retention. To accomplish this ambitious mandate, a shared leadership model was selected wherein the priorities and activities are driven by the student-leaders, distributing the responsibility and decision-making throughout the team. Written by two of the student leaders and the faculty coordinator, this paper extols the virtues of shared ownership (through a shared leadership model), documents the evolution and priorities of the Engineering Success Centre, and assesses the success of the Centre in its inaugural year. Admittedly, academic support centres exist in some form in most universities, yet the value of this paper is to share praxes that were derived and developed by the students themselves. LITERATURE REVIEW This section contains a literature review examining the impact that an academic support centre could have on retention, followed by a presentation of foundational literature on shared leadership models. Retention The literature indicates that retention can be improved by: (1) providing academic and social integration in a welcoming environment,(2) developing students’ study habits for both in-person and online learning, and (3) bridging the gap between high school and university with targeted support for first-year students. Lee and Matusovich (2016, 417) performed a study of six academic support centres at four institutions and spoke with both students and providers to produce a model of co-curricular support. The 2023: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 1 31 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Shared Ownership of an Engineering Success Centre to Support Students and Develop Leaders study identified 23 outputs that were classified into six categories: academic performance, faculty/ staff interactions, extracurricular involvement, peer-group interaction, professional development, and special circumstances. The underlying focus of the study was on retention efforts, recognizing that academic support centres often provide targeted support for students from traditionally underrepresented groups. A study on the retention of female students noted that women leave engineering programs when they do not feel connected, welcomed, or engaged, identifying that this can undermine their confidence in their abilities (Brown et al. 2020, 10) . Especially during a pandemic when most programs have moved online, studen

FAQs

What problem does the paper address in engineering education?

It addresses student stress and attrition during the transition to university, highlighting limited academic support, individualistic program structures, low confidence, and inadequate preparation from high school.

How was the Engineering Success Centre leadership model designed?

A shared leadership model was selected in which priorities and activities are driven by student-leaders, distributing responsibility and decision-making across the team.

According to the literature review, how can retention be improved?

Retention can be improved by enhancing academic and social integration, developing study habits for in-person and online learning, and bridging the gap between high school and university with targeted first-year support.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào