Specialization Career Course In the New Curriculum

of BS Civil Engineering at University of Luzon: A Study

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in the New Curriculum is a four-year course redesigned to
cover the different specialization skills, concerned with the use of the scientific and mathematical
principles in the construction of buildings and infrastructures. The present curriculum introduced by
University of Luzon, Dagupan City, Philippines, provide two specialization courses : Construction
Engineering and Management (CEM), Structural Engineering (STE). While there are other following
fields: Geotechnical Engineering (GTE), Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering (HWR),
Transportation Engineering (TRE).
Considerable freedom exists for students to influence the nature of their program of study in the civil
engineering program. All principal subjects of civil engineering are taught at Univesrity of Luzon but
students may choose to concentrate in any one of the following areas through the selection of suitable
complementary courses.

Students normally choose an area of specialization once they begin to select their technical
complementary courses. This usually occurs in the last three semesters of their studies and should be
done in consultation with a departmental advisor. Please note that not all technical complementary
courses are offered each year. Consultation in the Office of Engineering Department about the units
offered is one of the way to establish a decision and scheduling for a particular semester.

In addition to the areas of specialization listed, a student may opt to complete one or more of the Minor
Programs offered to Engineering students. Following the completion of their undergraduate degrees,
students may also choose to pursue Graduate Studies in their preferred area of specialization.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The subject propasal will become as the additional or replacement of the duplicate units of the CE
curriculum of the said school. (For example: computer programming subjects), as we focus more
about Civil engineering topics and interests, researchers are engaging to a proposition in which more
of beneficial discussions must take place in the curriculum to produce more quality and ethically-
prepared students of Civil engineering of University of Luzon.

Objectives:
 To give CE students an additional learning experience in terms of career guidance discussing the
environment that are waiting for fresh civil engineers outside the school by realistic approach.

 The particular career guidance in the CE profession will add more benificial provisions in
understanding actual disciplines and ethical work choices from the degree.
  Conduction of Surveys from known or anonymous students of UL (current or graduated) will
show the position of confidence level with their course or profession to assess the quality of CE
students produced by school.

1.3 Scope and Delimitation

The Focus of the Subject: Professional’s duties include assurance of safety regulations for the project
being built. Civil engineers find work in engineering companies, architectural firms, construction
businesses and within all levels of government. Normally the civil engineers specialize in only one area
such as environmental, structural, hydraulics, construction, sanitary, transportation or even soil
mechanics engineering. The major levels in the hierarchy of civil engineering construction jobs are
described as designations from the beginning of the career to the highest career level attained in brief as
below.
Investigation: List of Subjects major in Construction Engineering Management (2018)
Investigation: List of Subjects major in Structural Engineering (2018)
NOTE: Since the Filipino and Panitikan (Literature) are already declared as non-core subjects in colleges
upheld by the Supreme Court on May 26,2019 together with the Memorandum Order. 20 by the
Commission on Higher Education, therefore, the propasal of newly relevant subjects related to each
college department are expected to fulfill the total number of units to be acquired in a bachelors degree.
The research of Career Guidance of Civil Engineering as specified subject in the new curriculum will apply
the timeliness need of students from universities in order to pave an actual professional perspective. The
subject will be the Version 2 of Civil Engineering Orientation from first year as freshmen upto fourth year
as graduating students.

1.4 Significance of the Study:

1)The research will make an overview of the entire workfield options of the said profession.

2) The subject will also focus on the different industries of Civil Engineering by terms of job demands,
competition, timely issues, and potentials.

3)To be able to establish higher rating of decision-preparedness of CE students to choose an expertise

1.5 Definition of Terms:

 ethical validity - recognition that the choices we make through the research process have political
and ethical consideration.

o Researchers need to ask if research is helpful to the target population

o seek out alternative explanations than those the researcher constructs

o ask if we've really learned something from our work

 substantive validity - evaluting the substance or content of an interpretive work

o need to see evidence of the interpretive choices the researcher made

o an assessment of the biases inherent in the work over the lifespan of a research project

o self-reflect to understand our own transformation in the research process

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 (INTERNATIONAL) Chitkara.edu: SPECIALISATION IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT &

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Through this program, Civil Engineers become capable of constructing special structures and manage
complete projects within given schedule and budget. Structural Engineering includes design of building
& bridges and considering loads such as wind, earthquakes and people. These design structures could
include materials such as concrete, steel, timber, masonry and fibre-reinforced polymers. Civil Engineers
who specialise in Construction Engineering Management can find jobs in government departments,
private and public sector industries. Opportunities are also available in research and teaching
institutions.

CAMPUS RECRUITMENT
Chitkara University students are groomed under high standards of program delivery and rigorous
curriculum. This will naturally make them capable enough to match any employer’s expectations. Civil
Engineers who specialise in Construction Engineering Management, can find jobs in government
departments, private and public-sector industries. Opportunities are also available in research and
teaching institutions. Abundant jobs opportunities are available to graduates as:
Planning Engineer Quality Control Engineer
Site Engineer Project Manager

The research further gave program higlights which include topics in Civil Engineering Course.

2.2 (LOCAL) Civil Engineering Department, De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines: Implementing the
Civil Engineering Orientation Course in the Revised BSCE Curriculum at De La Salle University

The paper presents the pilot implementation of the Civil Engineering Orientation (CEORIEN) course in the
revised Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering curriculum at De La Salle University. The CEORIEN course
was designed based on outcomes-based education (OBE) principles where student outcomes, learning
outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment are constructively aligned. The course syllabus
and student-centered learning activities are described. Moreover, surveys conducted related to
understanding student’s perception about the course are also presented.

The Pilot Implementation: Student Survey on Why Civil Engineering? During the first two weeks of
classes, an online survey on “Why Civil Engineering” was conducted to understand the family background
and interests of the students and why they enrolled in BSCE. The reasearcher have shown results with a
good indicator that the students were not “forced” to take BSCE and hopefully this translates to a self-
motivated behavior towards studying the various courses in the BSCE curriculum.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 This chapter will provide a discussion of the chosen research design in order to answer the research
question of this study, Conducting the research under the interpretivist paradigm. Gaining an in depth
understanding of the learning experiences of Civil Engineering Students at UL through case study
interviews. The description of 100 students, participated in the research, is provided in this chapter.
Furthermore, the evaluation of cross-case synthesis method, the method for data analysis in this
research, is given. Finally, the appraisal of conceptual issues such as validity, reliability and ethics is
presented in this end of this chapter.

3.2 Research Design

This research will be designed under the interpretivist paradigm, which is, according to Collis and
Hussey (2009), concerned with providing qualitative interpretation of social phenomena within a
particular context. This will contribute to the existing body of knowledge, which is mainly based on
survey data.

3.3 Research Gap

It is important to acknowledge that this research has two major constraints: the relatively short period
of time and the relatively short length of the dissertation. However it is necessary to collect rich
qualitative data to investigate the learning experiences of CE students at UL, which is the core issue in
this study. Thus the choice of the interpretivist paradigm for this research is clear. The aim of this
paradigm is to look at the phenomena in a fresh way, which means providing researcher’s assumptions
regarding the phenomena being studied. The research will involve an inductive process, where
understanding of school’s current situation and possible problems will be analyzed within the context.

3.4 Data Gathering Metdos and Instruments Used:

1. Printed and Online Survey Forms: consisting of 5 questions. Graphs will be presented
after the Data Collection.
2. Respondents are 3rd year and 4th year Students and Professionals Graduated after 1-2
years of the degree.
 3rd year - 30 students
  4th year- 30 students
 Graduated (1-2 years) - 40 professionals

= Total of 100 respondents

Questionnaires; Year-2022:

1.What position are you expecting or what job title are you applying from your civil engineering
profession? Check any options.

Undecided:___

Decided (list atleast one title):___

2.Do you know any civil engineering companies (private/goverment) here at Dagupan City or any areas
here in the Philippines? Check any options:

Not yet:___

Knew some (list atleast one):___

3. Are you planning to apply at any civil engineering companies you have known and is your targeted job
title in there? Check any options.

Still thinking about it:___

Yes. (list the position):___

4. What Subject in the entire course of your Civil Engineering degree that made you become decided on
a certain career you are going to take? Check any options.

may vary:___

(list the subject and one of the topic there):___

5.What is your chosen major in civil engineering, Structural or Construction Engineering Management?

Structural (list atleast one of your skills):___

Construction Engineering Management (list atleast one of your skills):___

Case study methodology will be used for this research. This is one of the main methodoloiges associated
with the interpretive paradigm.Yin (2009: 18) defines case study as "an empirical inquiry that
investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within is real-life context, especially when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident". The present research
investigates experiences of CE Students at the last two years and most of the questions are 'what' and
'why' open questions. Thus case study is a logical choice for methodology. Though the research under
this methodology is very time-consuming (Collis and Hussey, 2009), has lack of rigor (Yin, 2009), the
analyzed data, collected from the case studies, will allow to obtain an in-depth knowledge in Career
Perspectives of students produced by school.

Taking a case study approach, the research will investigate and interpret the experience of 100
respondents within the context of the above literature. The vast majority of the literature surrounding
the position students and fresh graduate professionals has been conducted in the form of surveys.
According to Saunder etc al. (2009), though surveys have high reliability and generalizability compared
to case study approach, this technique has lack of validity. As soon as the validity of the research is
brought into question, there can be a danger of misinterpretation of the studies phenomena in the
Positivist studies ( Collis and Hussey, 2009), Therefore, a case study approach has been chosen for this
research.

When designing this research it was determined that it will be cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. A
cross-sectional research is "a study of a particular phenomenon (or phenomena) at a particular time"
(Saunders etc al,, 2009,p. 148). In other words the research will have a "snapshot" time horizon. Thus
the present research will employ a number of case studies investigation a particular period of 2019-
2022. The identification of a specific unit of analysis will enable to state the purpose of the study clearly
and succinctly (Collis and Hussey, 2009) and facilitate the feasibility of the research (Yin, 2009). Kervin
(1992) recommends selecting the unit of analysis at as low a level as possible and at the level where
decision are made. This is explained by the main purpose of the research, which puts student's
experiences as the focus of this research.