2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Perception and Adaptation of First-Year International Graduate Students Towards Academic Writing: A Case Study at a School of Engineering

International graduate students (IGS) face unprecedented writing tasks within the first two
semesters of resumption in the United States. When writing academic-related papers, IGS
frequently encounter several difficulties. These difficulties may result from linguistic
obstacles, cultural disparities, ignorance of academic standards, and others. This study
investigates how recently admitted international graduate students (master and doctoral
levels) in engineering at one of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) perceive and adapt to the academic writing process.
This study will adopt Academic Literacies Framework, using an Academic Literacies
Questionnaire (ALQ) approach to collect data. Two sections of the questionnaire will be
utilized for this research which are twenty (20) items on “Perception towards academic
writing practices” and six (6) items on “Adaptative mechanism to overcome difficulties
faced in Academic writing practices”. The data will be analyzed with SPSS, a statistical
software for Social Science. This holistic approach captures the breadth and depth of
challenges faced by the IGS as well as the strategies they use to adapt to their new academic
environment.
The findings of this study (which is in progress) will provide new valid information about
how colleges— HBCUs in particular—can more effectively help IGS. The findings
potentially have wider ramifications for improving overall graduate success, academic
performance, retention rates, and workforce development in critical engineering fields.

Authors

Mr. Pelumi Olaitan Abiodun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4969-9591 Morgan State University [biography]

Pelumi Abiodun is a current doctoral student and research assistant at the department of Civil Engineering, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. Pelumi got his BSc and MSc degree in Physics from Obafemi Awolowo University, where he also served as a research assistant at the Environmental Pollution Research unit, in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. As part of his contribution to science and engineering, Pelumi has taught as a teaching assistant both at Morgan State University and Obafemi Awolowo University. With passion to communicate research findings and gleaned from experts in the field as he advances his career, Olaitan has attended several in-persons and virtual conferences and workshop, and at some of them, made presentation on findings on air pollution, waste water reuse, and heavy metal contamination.
Dr. Oludare Adegbola Owolabi P.E. Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Oludare Owolabi, a professional engineer in Maryland, joined the Morgan State University faculty in 2010. He is the assistant director of the Center for Advanced Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering Research (CATIER) at Morgan State Universit
Mr. Samuel Sola Akosile Morgan State University [biography]

Samuel Akosile is a Ph.D. student in Sustainable Infrastructure and Resilience Engineering at Morgan State University, within the Department of Civil Engineering. He currently works as a Research Assistant, contributing to innovative studies in the field of civil infrastructure. His primary research area focuses on sustainable design for pavement systems, aiming to develop environmentally responsible, durable, and cost-effective solutions for modern transportation networks. Samuel’s work explores the integration of green materials, lifecycle assessment, and resilient engineering practices in pavement design. Through his research, he seeks to address key challenges in infrastructure sustainability while promoting long-term resilience in the face of climate change and increasing urban demands.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025