High willingness, weak cognition: The global competence paradox of emerging engineering undergraduates

Abstract

To address the demand for high-quality engineering talents amid globalization and technological transformation, and enhance the international competitiveness of emerging engineering talents, this study constructs an evaluation system covering four dimensions-knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, actions and willingness-based on PISA global competence framework. A survey was conducted among 800 undergraduates from 20 universities with emerging engineering disciplines in China. The study finds that these universities presents a structural imbalance characterized by “positive attitudes with weak cognition” with obvious deficiencies in knowledge comprehension and cross-cultural skills; students’ global competence is significantly influenced by factors such as gender, academic background, maternal education level, and international exchange experience; science and engineering students are significantly inferior to liberal arts students in terms of global knowledge and problem awareness. Accordingly, three improvement paths are proposed. First, reconstruct the curriculum system to bridge the structural gap between cognition and competence. Second, optimize the mobility mechanism to enhance the educational effectiveness of international exchanges. Third, promote interdisciplinary integration to break through the limitations of humanistic vision among science and engineering students.

Document Type: Original article

Cited as:

Zhu, Z. Y., Liu, Y., & Wu, C. X. (2026). High willingness, weak cognition: The global competence paradox of emerging engineering undergraduates. Education and Lifelong Development Research, 3(1): 22-32. https://doi.org/10.46690/elder.2026.01.03

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