Students’ Persistence inAdvanced EngineeringUniversity-Industry-Collaborated Distance Education : A Case Study of the project ‘Expertise forSustainable Wood Construction’ in LinnaeusUniversity

Abstract: EHTB project is a university-industry collaboration program at Linnaeus University.The program aims at offering advanced knowledge and technology about woodconstruction that meet the needs of the labor market. All the courses are permitted toengineering students and employees who engage in the industry with sufficient workingexperience, however, there is a high rate of dropout in the project.People, most of whom were full-time working and having a family, applied to thecourses in the project since it started. Some of them gave up their offer mostly becausethey chose another alternative. For those who registered, the withdrawn during studyoccurred again mainly due to time issue caused by their heavy work burden or thedistracted family situation.The students who participated in the EHTB project usually had a high commitment tothe education. Distance students usually have fewer communication with the institutioncompared to other campus-based learners. The author suggests that the university couldestablish an information and consulting system for a more frequent information delivery.It would be better if the associating companies encourage their staff to take the studyand create the learning atmosphere for the students. Moreover, the students within theproject are the resources to various company, there is no harm for both the universityand the companies to communicate more with the students for more future cooperationand development.At the end, the author points out that the distance education mode of EHTB project didnot fully utilize the potential of the flexibility. Some face-to-face meetings deepened thetime limitation and the inconvenience for transportation. More distance operationtechnology should be implemented to increase the flexibility for students.