INFLUENCE OF RENAMING CIVIL ENGINEERING: CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT

Abstract

 In response to the worsening social impression, there are cases where the civil engineering industry avoids using the word “DOBOKU” itself. This is particularly evident in the fact that the word “DOBOKU” is being dropped from the names of many university departments. However, there is no empirical analysis of the effect of the name change on the popularity of the department in the entrance examinations and on the attitudes of the students. In order to clarify the influence of the name change, this study empirically analyzes the influence of the department name based on the questionnaire survey of students belonging to civil engineering departments of several universities, the data of entrance examinations and the data of current students’ attributes. The results show that the renaming of civil engineering departments can increase the ratio of female students, confuse civil engineering departments with architecture departments, and decrease the level of interest in civil engineering as a career field.