3 QUESTIONNAIRE STUDY

Respondence percentage 77%

The questionnaire was returned by 206 persons included in the study. All the points in the questionnaire have been compiled into statistics for all the persons who had replied to the point in question. The number of respondents in each question is either specified in the text below or it has been appended to the caption or table title (e.g. (n = 201) indicates that 201 persons answered to the question). In addition to the entire material, the results of the questionnaire study have been examined separately with regard to those who had graduated in the 1980’s and 1990’s, respectively. Moreover, the results have also been examined with regard to those respondents who were known to have submitted their Master’s thesis to Ragnar Granit Institute.

3.1 BASIC INFORMATION

3.1.1 Name and sex

One third of responses anonymous

It was possible for the respondents to reply the questionnaire either with or without giving their name. A total of 135 questionnaires (66%) was returned with names, whereas the figure for anonymous responses was 71 (34%). Of all the respondents, 174 (84%) were males and 32 (16%) were females. Consequently, the respondence percentage for females was 84, whereas for males it was 74. Women had replied anonymously relatively more often (50%) than men (32%).

3.1.2 Year of graduation

Two out of three respondents graduated in the 1990’s

Figure 5 presents the distribution of the volumes of the respondents who had included Biomedical Engineering in their Master’s degree by graduation year. As was stated in Chapter 2, student volumes have increased considerably in recent years. Naturally, this is also manifest in the concentration of the distribution on the last few years. Those graduated by the year 1990 accounted for 35% of the respondents (71 persons), whereas almost two thirds of those who had stated their year of graduation had graduated in the 1990’s. This was a predictable result, because even after the definition of the sample, it was clear that the number of graduates from the 1990’s was larger than those from the 1980’s. Moreover, the respondence rate of those who had graduated in the 1990’s (79%) was also higher than with those who had graduated earlier (68%).

3.1.3 Thesis workplace

Proportion of Master’s theses written for industry increased in recent years

The commissioner of the Master’s thesis (the place where the research was done) was inquired in the questionnaire with a very crude classification (Table 2). The majority of the theses (over 80%) had been written either at TUT or in the service of the industrial sector. Those who had completed their Master’s thesis at the University accounted for 44% of the respondents, while the proportion of those who had been employed by industry was almost as high (38%). The proportion of theses made at the University has decreased over the years, whereas that of industry has increased. As recently as in the 1980’s, 33% of the respondents had written their thesis for industry, whereas the corresponding proportion for the 1990’s was already more than 40%. In the last few years, the proportion of theses written for industry had further increased. During the last three years, 31 (49%) and 25 (40%) of the respondents wrote their thesis for industry and for the University, respectively.

Figure 5. Number of respondents by year of graduation (n = 203).

The respondents were not separately inquired as to the TUT unit to which they had submitted their thesis for approval. However, this was possible to establish for the responses given with names. Of those, 59% had submitted their thesis to Ragnar Granit Institute (79 persons out of the 135 respondents who had given their names).

¹VTT = Technical Research Centre of Finland

3.1.4 Number of years in the profession

Number of years in the profession corresponded with the period of time from graduation

Since the graduation year does not necessarily serve as a direct indication of the number of years a respondent has been employed in a field corresponding to his or her M.Sc. education, the questionnaire included a separate question concerning the number of full years in the profession (Figure 6). All in all, the number of years in the profession had a relatively good correspondence with the period of time from graduation. For thirteen respondents, the number of full years in the profession was smaller than the number of years after graduation by more than one year. Of these respondents, six were females, four had completed a postgraduate degree and one had been unemployed since graduation.

Figure 6. The number of full years in the profession after graduation (n = 202).

3.1.5 Number of employers

Every other respondent has only worked for one employer

Figure 7 presents the number of employers at whose service the respondents have been after their graduation. The majority of the respondents had only worked for one employer. Two out of three had worked for not more than two employers. Of the respondents, 24% had been employed by more than two employers. On average, the respondents had worked for two employers.

Figure 7. Number of employers after graduation (n = 201).

Naturally, the number of employers varied considerably more with those who had been engaged in working life for a longer period of time than with the recently graduated. Of those graduated prior to the year 1990, only 19% were still working for their first employer, whereas the corresponding proportion for those graduated in the 1990’s was 61%. Of those graduated prior to 1990, 32% worked for their second employer, while the figures for third and fourth employers were 28% and 18%, respectively. Of those graduated in the 1990’s, 28% had worked for two employers and 11% for three or more. In this sample, a certain ‘half-life’ (the time when at least 50% of the respondents graduated in a certain year had already worked for more than one employer) was four years: consequently, one half of those graduated in 1993 were still working for their first employer.

Of the respondents who had submitted their Master’s thesis to Ragnar Granit Institute, persons employed by one, two, three, four and more than four employers correspondingly accounted for 35%, 29%, 19%, 14% and 3%, respectively. On average, these respondents had thus also worked for two employers.

Figure 8 presents the respondents’ average working time at the service of one employer. The numerical values have been determined in such a manner that the number of each respondent’s full years in the profession after graduation has been divided by the number of employers. On average, the respondents had worked for each employer for 3 years and 3 months. Of the 70 respondents who had worked for an employer for less than two years, 71% had graduated in or after 1995, and correspondingly, of the 111 respondents who had worked for an employer for less than three years, 58% had graduated in or after 1994. Those graduated prior to 1995 had worked for one employer for 4 years and 3 months on average. The respondents who had submitted their Master’s thesis to Ragnar Granit Institute had worked for each employer for 4 years and 1 month on average.

Figure 8. Average time spent working for one employer. Full years in the profession have been divided by the number of employers (n = 201).