4 DISCUSSION

The conducted questionnaire study provides quite comprehensive information concerning the placement in working life of the Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering and their opinions on the suitability of their education in respect of their current job description. Unfortunately, it is difficult to evaluate the success of Ragnar Granit Institute as an educator on the basis of this survey, since no results from any corresponding surveys conducted in Biomedical Engineering or fields of science close to it are known to us. Therefore, we can only discuss the results of this survey from a very subjective perspective.

4.1 STUDENTS OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

From 1976 to the spring of 1997, 272 students have included the professional subject of Biomedical Engineering in their Master’s degree programme, of which 70% completed it as their long professional subject. In the 1990’s, student volumes have clearly increased, and Biomedical Engineering has gained in significance as the professional subject supporting the major professional subject chosen by the student. Consequently, of all those who have included Biomedical Engineering in their degree programme, three fifths have graduated in the 1990’s. In addition to Biomedical Engineering, the most popular professional subjects in the degree programme have been Electronics, Digital and Computer Technology, Measurement Technology, Physics, Signal and Image Processing, Software Engineering and Industrial Economy. The average time from enrolment at the University to the completion of the Master of Science in Engineering degree for the students who had included Biomedical Engineering in their degree programme was 6 years and 8 months. During the above-mentioned period, a total of 140 Master’s theses had been submitted to and 19 students had completed a postgraduate degree at Ragnar Granit Institute.

4.2 QUESTIONNAIRE STUDY

The respondence rate of the questionnaire (206 responses, respondence percentage 77) can be regarded to be very good for this type of postal questionnaire study. The respondence rate was partially promoted by the possibility to answer anonymously (34% of the responses) and by the two repeat postings.

The majority of the respondents had written their Master’s thesis either for Tampere University of Technology (44%) or the industrial sector (38%). A distinct increase could be observed in the proportion of theses written for industry, and a correspondent decrease in those written for the University. This can probably be interpreted as a proof of an increased demand for Masters of Science in Engineering and of industry’s investment in professionals of technology at an earlier stage. After graduation, nine out of ten had acquired their first job in less than three months. The first employment of the majority of the respondents had been a permanent full-time job, albeit during the depression years of the early 1990’s, the first employment of every two out of three had been fixed-term. The first job had corresponded well with the education received from the University, as only 6% of the respondents perceived that their first job corresponded only a little or not at all with their education. In recent years, a further increase can be observed in the correspondence between education and work. For two out of five, the first employer had been the University or a telecommunications company. The proportion of the latter was considerably increased by those graduated in the present decade and their placement in working life.

With regard to current employment, four out of five stated that they were in a permanent full-time job, whereas 16% of the respondents worked in fixed-term employment. The proportion of fixed-term employment was considerably increased by the respondents working in state institutions, who covered 85% of all those in fixed-term jobs. Almost two out of three respondents were employed in expert positions and every third in managerial positions. The majority of the respondents deemed their current job to correspond with the education received from TUT. Quite expectedly, the correspondence slightly diminished with those who had been employed for a longer period and advanced in their career further. Every third estimated that the Biomedical Engineering education had been significant for acquiring their current job. Similar to their first job, every other respondent also worked with Biomedical Engineering in their current job. Its proportion in their current job was estimated as significant by one out of four. At the time of response, the job description of three out of four was related to product development, project assignments or research. In addition to these, the most significant job descriptions were sales and marketing, data processing and teaching and training.

Migration upon leaving the first job had been relatively rare. Some respondents had moved to the Helsinki metropolitan area, but one half of them still worked in the Tampere area. On the other hand, telecommunications companies appeared to also attract an increasing number of those who had studied Biomedical Engineering. The position of the employer having employed the largest number was achieved by the Nokia Group, but the role of Instrumentarium Corporation as an employer was also noteworthy. Eleven persons stated that they had established their own enterprises. As a very positive result, it was observed that five out of the six identified companies were situated in the Tampere area.

Among the areas of expertise required at work, language skills, project and teamwork, written and oral communication skills and use of data processing systems stood out, all of which were on average perceived as significant (on a scale of one to five, the average was more than four). With regard to language skills, the importance of the English language was particularly emphasized (all the respondents had mentioned English among the three most important languages). In their verbal feedback, the respondents did indeed praise the Institute’s English-language instruction and acquainting students to use the English language in their reports and presentations. The capabilities provided by the Master of Science in Engineering education for different areas of expertise varied considerably. In respect of research and use of data processing systems, the capabilities provided by the education were regarded as relatively good. Conversely, with regard to personnel administration, and sales and marketing, the capabilities provided by the education were deemed only as fair. When comparing the capabilities provided by the education and the significance of areas of expertise in the current job, the most severe deficiencies could be found in project and teamwork, oral communication skills and negotiation skills.

When evaluating the significance of various fields of science and technology in the current job, Digital and Computer Technology and Software Engineering were most prominent. The significance of these fields is bound to be high in companies operating in the field of technology, but the result may probably be partially attributed to the strong growth of the telecommunication field, which has in recent years also attracted those Masters of Science in Engineering who have studied Biomedical Engineering. In addition to the above-mentioned fields, for those employed by companies working in the field of Biomedical Engineering, the latter naturally exceeded those fields in significance, but so did Medicine.

Interest in a postgraduate degree was quite frequent. This interest was particularly pronounced among those graduated in the 1990’s, of whom four out of five regarded taking a postgraduate degree as possible. Indeed, some respondents actually enquired as to possible topics for Licentiate or Doctoral thesis in the free-form section.

Verbal feedback praised the Institute’s operations, and its education was perceived as a good, interesting and distinguished basis for a career. The education was further regarded as providing an extremely good general knowledge base and good capabilities for conducting and leading interdisciplinary projects. The education was perceived as providing particularly good capabilities for engaging in research and scientific thinking, and for operating in the international academic community.

The Institute was criticized for its excessively theoretical orientation. However, this may probably be at least partially interpreted as praise, since as the number of polytechnics is increasing, it is precisely the theoretical orientation that should be emphasized in academic universities. More cooperation with industry was called for. Although the Institute’s most important cooperation partners naturally consist of hospitals, it is true that as the field of Biomedical Engineering is continuously growing in Finland, cooperation with the industry should be expanded. Moreover, increased cooperation would naturally benefit the Masters of Science in Biomedical Engineering in finding employment. Creation and maintenance of contacts with the industry has partially been increased by the professional subject club Pollex of students in Biomedical Engineering, operating under the auspices of the Institute. The respondents wished that the education would place an increasing emphasis on such areas of expertise as sales and marketing. Naturally, it is not appropriate to add these to the Institute’s range of courses. Conversely, there is a need to provide students with more information as to what type of capabilities may be expected of them in working life. Consequently, the aim is to distribute the results of this study as far as possible to all students interested in the professional subject of Biomedical Engineering in the future.

4.3 DEFICIENCIES IN QUESTIONNAIRE AND ARRANGEMENTS

In connection with writing this study report, the questionnaire was found to be partially deficient:

- In order to acquire a more detailed analysis of persons graduated from Ragnar Granit Institute, a further point should have been added to the questionnaire, enquiring the unit to which the respondent had submitted his/her Master’s thesis, or at least whether s/he had written the thesis for Ragnar Granit Institute. At the present situation, this could only be established for those who had given their name.

- Likewise, it would have been interesting to examine the research population according to major and minor subjects.

- It would also have been interesting to know the reason if a respondent had not found employment immediately after graduation.

- When asking the name of employer, it would have been necessary to also enquire whether the employer manufactured products related to health care technology. Thus it would have been possible to determine the connection of employer to Biomedical Engineering for those persons who did not wish to identify their employer.

- When enquiring the current employment position, it would have been necessary to specify the alternative ‘unemployed’ in the questionnaire as to whether unemployment was a personal decision (full-time mother/father, further studies, etc.) or caused by the current employment situation.

- When asking the position in the current organization, a more detailed list of positions would have been appropriate.

- The question concerning the number of personnel in the current unit of the employer should have been specified, because it is very probable that the respondents’ ideas as to the definition of unit had varied somewhat.

- When enquiring postgraduate degrees, division between postgraduate degrees in technology and in other fields would have been appropriate.

Moreover, the wording of some questions should have been specified. The question concerning placement in working life after graduation could have been understood so as to only mean full-time or permanent employment. The question concerning as to how the respondents estimated the significance of their Biomedical Engineering education for acquiring their job could have been understood as enquiring as to how the Institute had promoted their job-seeking.

Conducting the questionnaire study during the summer months was not necessarily the best possible solution. However, the respondence percentage achieved quite a surprising figure for this type of questionnaire study, which can largely be ascribed to the two repeat postings.

With regard to the respondents, a slight carelessness could be observed in the fact that in some anonymous responses, the respondent had expressed his/her wish to be contacted and had enquired as to the possibilities for postgraduate studies in the free-form section.