1

Hartle

Annotated Bibliography

What are the Benefits and Disadvantages of Higher Education for Engineers?

Natasya Hartle
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
October 27, 2015

2
Hartle

Annotated Bibliography
AAHE.org. "American Academics and Higher Education." Aahe.org. AAHE.org, n.d. Web. 27
Oct. 2015.
The AAHE, American Academics and Higher Education, focus on higher academics in
America. The AAHEs future success rely heavily on America's academic system. They
believe that this system has been an area of strength for America and that our universities
are the envy of the world. They [the universities] help students achieve their potential in
life by educating them and teaching them to be creative and curious about the
environment around them. They state that students pursuing degrees of higher education
are being trained with skills that will make them more successful and competitive in the
workplace. The article stresses that in today's time, graduate degrees are even more
important than they were in the past. The refer to the fact that employers are requiring
skills for jobs that are becoming more complex. It also brings attention to the fact that
nearly every position requires some level of knowledge with computers and technology
and that institutions in America have changed to meet these demands of the upcoming
workforce. Although this source is completely biased, I feel that the information that I
obtained is accurate and credible and will be helpful in my final report giving reasons
why engineers should pursue graduate degrees.
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, The. "Careers at ASME."Asme.org. The American
Society of Mechanical Engineers, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
The American Society or Mechanical Engineers promotes the art, science & practice of
multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe. This website comes

3
Hartle

with many resources, including career information and the recruiting process for
engineers as well as many other things that do not pertain to my research question.
Mainly, the information of job recruitment gives tips for how to apply for the careers that
engineers want. This source is very credible because it is the official website for
mechanical engineers for the United States. However, I have not decided if the
information is pertinent enough to aid in the answering of whether or not a degree in
higher education is worth the costs. I originally thought that this source would give more
statistics on the amount of students who got the jobs and their degree. I also found an
article in this website pertaining to what employers are looking for in new recruits. This
information was sound but I had trouble relating it to the research topic so I have chosen
to leave that specific article out of my paper. Altogether, this source is reliable but may
not give enough information for me to compile a feasible answer to my overall question.
Haynie, Devon. "Choose Between a Master's, Ph.D. in Engineering." USNews. U.S. News &
World Report LP, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
"A doctorate in engineering requires a love of research and patience for several years of
challenging study." Devon Haynie, author of the US News article Choose Between a
Master's, Ph.D. in Engineering firmly believes that engineers whom pursue a graduate
degree will have a competitive advantage over those that only have a bachelor's. Haynie
starts his article by remarking that engineers who have a bachelor's degree are on "solid
footing." Engineers with a bachelor's degree start with high salaries and better chances of
finding full-time work compared to peers with different majors. However, he states that
engineers have increasingly become more questionable of what a graduate degree could
do for their career. "With the economy improving, significant numbers of job postings are

4
Hartle

now requiring higher levels of expertise," says Ken Little, senior graduate career
development adviser at Georgia Institute of Technology. In other words, a large amount
of engineering jobs are getting harder and harder in skill level and require employees
with more mastery. Little also mentions that high-tech jobs are also becoming more
globally competitive, meaning that not only are engineers competing against others in
America, but from every corner of the world for top level positions. Once decided to
purse a graduate degree, Haynie says that the next step is to determine whether they want
to have a master's or Ph.D. According to Babatunde Ogunnaike, dean of the college of
engineering at the University of Delaware, master's degree prepares a student for careers
in industry that don't have a focus in research. "If you want to work in research either in
industry or in academia or for a government research lab, you need to get a Ph.D.," he
says. These statements are completely coherent and reflect the basic understanding of
higher education. Eddie Machek, a current graduate student at the University of Akron,
describes the differences in education as this, "At a bachelor's level you are going to go
out and do what's been done. At the master's level you are going to be in charge of the
people who are doing that stuff. In a Ph.D., that's a whole other thing because you are
doing the new stuff. You are in a lab." All in all, this article explains the differences
between undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as the differences between master's
and Ph.D. This source was very useful in explaining the main components that make up
my research question in a unbiased and clear way. This article will appear in my final
research paper because the information was accurate and all of the quotes were obtained
from credible sources from scholarly positions.

5
Hartle

Smit, Rene. "Towards a Clearer Understanding of Student Disadvantage in Higher Education:

Problematizing Deficit Thinking." Academia.edu. Academia, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
Towards a clearer understanding of student disadvantage in higher education:
problematizing deficit thinking by Rene Smit is an academic journal which describes the
massification of higher education. It begins with statistics about the growth in higher
education participation globally. Smit starts to compare different sections of the world
Dwight one another and their levels of participation in graduate school. The numbers she
gives as stats seem a bit farfetched. The percentages seem far too high to be possible,
even in todays time. Smit then delves into the topic of diversity and its impact on the
amount of people enrolled in graduate school. She focuses mainly around South Africa,
further in the article, making her seem biased in this context. She mainly focuses on the
challenges that far more underprivileged parts of the world have in regards to pursing
degrees of higher education. I know nothing of the credibility besides the minimal
citations of reports from 2009. Because this is a biased source with a focus on the world
instead of solely the United States, which is the main focus of my research question, I
will not be using this source in my final paper.