Attitudes of first‐year engineering students to mathematics—A case study

As the spectrum of entry qualifications in mathematics offered by engineering students has changed, so disquiet has been expressed about the ability of students to cope with traditional programmes in mathematics. This paper reviews the performance of engineering students in first‐year mathematics at the University of Warwick and compares students who have different mathematics qualifications on entry. While there is some correlation between performance at university and mathematics grade at A level and marks in Foundation or Access courses, there is no correlation for BTEC students. The spread of results for students with similar entry qualifications is large, and so the variability of performance is likely to be the result of other factors. In an attempt to quantify these, a questionnaire survey has been carried out to determine attitudes to, and difficulties with, mathematics. A cluster analysis places students in one of five categories known as High‐Flyers, Downhillers, Haters, Ambivalents and Realistics. Significant differences between these groups were found to exist in their attitude as well as across a range of other variables, such as the type of educational institution attended before university, entry qualifications, the usefulness of various teaching methods and the difficulty found with specific subject areas. These groupings might be used to target appropriate support and monitoring for those students who encounter difficulties.