Abstract:

This paper attempts to highlight some of the impacts on civil engineering education during the Covid-19 pandemic (mainly in the civil discipline) in New Zealand. New Zealand is a country where the typical student cohort is extremely diverse in terms of nationality, ethnicity, previous educational background, and age.

In New Zealand engineering qualifications are delivered as the 4-year Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Washington Accord accredited), the 3-year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Sydney Accord accredited). The Bachelor of Engineering is offered at the main universities, while the Bachelor of Engineering Technology and New Zealand Diploma in Engineering is typically offered only at the country’s polytechnics.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the mass adoption of remote methods of delivery and assessment across New Zealand’s tertiary education sector. As students have become increasingly comfortable in the use of remote delivery technologies, evidence suggests that some now consider remote delivery and assessment the method of choice. The paper explores the course success of Unitec civil engineering students studying under remote delivery conditions in semester 2 of 2021, compared with that of previous semesters in which courses were fully delivered and assessed on-site.

For the Bachelor of Engineering Technology (Civil) it was found that students under remote delivery conditions performed similarly to those who had their courses delivered to them on-site. However, New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (Civil) students performed relatively poorly under remote delivery conditions. Findings pertaining to the New Zealand Government’s priority groups, Māori, Pasifika, and under-25s are also presented.

Keywords:

Civil engineering, COVID-19, remote delivery.