The Ethical Perception of Engineering Students Who Have Never Participated in the Ethics Curriculum

Abstract

Existing studies on the ethical perception of engineering students is based on observations among students who have been exposed to ethical courses in engineering schools. Whether the students have never been exposed to engi-neering ethical curriculum, can they perceive the specific ethical standards (such as the NSPE Code of Ethics) that apply to engineers? It is also not clear about the factors affecting the ethical perception of those students? This study aims to provide clarity in this area by examining the ethical per-ception of students who have never been exposed to engineering ethical cur-riculum. The results of quantitative analysis from survey data with 654 Vi-etnamese engineering students showed that the students have a positive per-ception of specific ethical standards that apply to engineers. Finally, the Pearson correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and linear regression analysis are used to examine the effect of students 'characteristics (such as gender, student year, GPA, voluntary blood donation of students, students' opinion on technology) on the ethical perception of engineering students.