Ethical Perceptions of Engineering Faculty Students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the professional ethical perception levels of engineering faculty students. The research was carried out with 125 students studying in engineering faculties of various universities in Kazakhstan. In this study, a quantitative research method was adopted, which takes the numerical data as a reference for itself while making associations about the findings and creates the opportunity to evaluate statistical analyses while doing this, while at the same time revealing the similarities and differences in the sample. In the research, a behaviour list consisting of 16 items was used to evaluate the ethical perceptions of engineering faculty students. Frequency (f) and percentage calculations from statistical techniques were used in the analysis of quantitative data. As a result of the research, it has been determined that there is a difference between students’ ethical perceptions about themselves and their colleagues. While the students evaluated the behaviours in the behaviour list from their own perspective, they found it less unethical and also found the behaviours they evaluated in terms of their colleagues more unethical. In this direction, the necessity of reorganising the course curricula with an ethical focus, in-service training of academic staff on ethical leadership, creating a corporate culture for universities to reinforce students’ ethical behaviours and organising seminars to strengthen commitment to ethical values has emerged.