2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Aim: The reform and innovation of recruitment and selection mechanism is one of the important breakthroughs in promoting the reform of engineering doctoral education system and mechanism. Focusing on the micro-issue of professional identity of engineering PhD students can help to understand the learning experience of engineering PhD students, understand the internal reasons for the phenomenon of "fleeing from engineering", explore the conditions for the formation of the attractiveness of engineering majors, and promote the long-term development of engineering education.

Methods: Based on the 4983 engineering PhD students in the 2022 Chinese Doctoral Graduates Survey, this study used the least squares (OLS) regression model to explore the supportive conditions for the formation of professional identity among engineering PhD students, and to further explore the influence of training modes on the professional identity of engineering PhD students from the perspective of disciplinary differences.

Results and discussion: On the one hand, the professional identity of engineering PhD students in non-coherent training is significantly higher than that of engineering PhD students in coherent-training; this difference is significant at different degrees of coherent-training, and the higher the degree of coherent-training, the lower the performance of professional identity of engineering PhD students. On the other hand, the professional identity of engineering PhD students is affected by the characteristics of the disciplines to a certain extent, and the training mode has a significant effect on the professional identity of PhD students in applied engineering disciplines, while it has no significant effect on PhD students in basic engineering disciplines.

Conclusions: (1) There are differences in the professional identity of engineering PhD students in coherent and non-coherent training, and the professional identity of engineering PhD students in non-coherent training is higher. (2) There are differences in the professional identity of engineering PhD students of different coherent types, and the higher the degree of coherence, the lower the performance of professional identity. (3) There are differences in the professional identity of engineering PhD students in applied engineering disciplines and basic engineering disciplines, and the cultivation mode significantly affects the professional identity of PhD students in applied engineering disciplines, but has no significant effect on PhD students in basic engineering disciplines. Based on this, the study makes suggestions on differentiated development of engineering bachelor's degree through training, focusing on institutional support and professional identity construction of engineering disciplines.