Student Selection for Excellent Engineer Training: a Statistical Approach Based on Exam Scores

Abstract

"Excellent engineer training program" is important for the education reform of China in recent years and a large number of studies related to the issue have been reported with lacking of discussion related to geological specialty. In this study, statistical analysis has been carried out based on the exam scores of geological students (sixty-four persons and twelve courses) in Suzhou University for revealing the differences between students and subdivision the students into different categories. The results of two-step cluster analysis suggest that these students can be subdivided into two groups with different characteristics, similar to the results obtained by factor analysis that twenty-nine students with high scores of English, global information system, structural geology, survey, palaeontology, coal geology, hydrology, geophysics and quaternary are considered to be chosen for training of excellent engineers.

Keywords: student selection, excellent engineer, statistical analysis, geological engineering