According to the Third Saxon Graduate Study, former KIA mechanical engineering students rate their study conditions and career entry very positively and would choose their subject again.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerlinde Kretschmar has become curious. When Dr. Peggy Sommer, who is responsible for quality management at the university, presented the results of the Third Saxon Graduate Study with regard to the HSZG in January, the professor from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering asked herself what assessments were made in particular by the mechanical engineering graduates who completed a cooperative study program with integrated training (KIA) at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
"I was particularly interested in how satisfied our mechanical engineering KIAswere with their studies, the subsequent work in their (KIA) company and their first salary," says the professor, who, as Dean of Studies in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, always keeps a close eye on the organization and quality of the degree course.
Dr. Peggy Sommer provides answers for KIA mechanical engineering graduates with specific results from the study:
"It is very positive that the former students predominantly rate the study conditions as good to very good and that the majority would choose the same subject again (78 percent), namely at the HSZG (88 percent)."
”The majority of respondents felt appropriately qualified when they started their career and are satisfied to very satisfied with their job in their company; permanent employment contracts predominate. The majority of graduates are satisfied to very satisfied with their current earnings.
They are very optimistic about the future in terms of their income and job security.
"For us lecturers and co-organizers of the KIA Mechanical Engineering degree course, these results are confirmation that we can offer our students a very good professional future," says Gerlinde Kretschmar happily.
"Mechanical engineering is a high-tech field. Our students have to adapt regularly and quickly to new requirements. The fact that the clear majority of graduates predominantly rate the study conditions as good to very good and would also choose the HSZG again is a positive signal. Because one thing is certain: the demand for engineers with practical training will increase even more in the future," says Prof. Kretschmar.
”The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences offers the KIA degree course in Mechanical Engineering as a 4 1/2-year Bachelor's degree course or as a 5-year degree course to become a Diplomingenieur (FH) in conjunction with metal training professions.
This means a basic course of study with parallel vocational training and examination before the IHK/HWK as well as the subsequent main course of study leading to a "Bachelor of Engineering" or "Diplomingenieur/ in (FH)" degree. This synthesis of practical vocational training and studies offers very good career prospects.
In the 3rd Saxon Graduate Study, the HSZG scored top marks overall in terms of study conditions, duration of studies and job entry opportunities.
Since 2008, the university has participated in the graduate studies of Saxon universities, which are carried out every five years under the leadership of the Competence Center for Education and Higher Education Research at TU Dresden. In the current study, funded by the SMWK, alumni of Bachelor's, Master's and diploma courses at the HSZG and other Saxon HAWs and universities were surveyed between August 2018 and May 2019. A total of 466 graduates from the 2015 and 2016 graduation years took part. The survey period was chosen so that the majority of respondents had completed their (first) degree at least two years previously.
