The bias toward research preparation in computer
science undergraduate education is perhaps a natural
result of the world view of the faculty, the single group
whose input is most important in curriculum development.
Since faculty members have created their own careers
through research, there apparently is a tendency to equate
research skills with the skills necessary to be a
professional. This tendency is not limited to the training of
non-native-English speaking students. According to one
faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, “Top graduates from a standard Computer
Science undergraduate program are well-prepared to go
on to graduate school in Computer Science and ultimately
to become professors of Computer Science themselves. In
other words academics are doing a fine job of replicating
themselves…[but]…[G]raduates are not good at…asking
questions of users and customers…[F]irst and foremost
we want our graduates to be able to get a job” [16]. By the
same token, industry has exhibited interests in hiring
engineering graduates who possess effective
communication skills that will assist them in working in a
team [17]. According to [18], however, engineering
faculty members have been hesitant to teach written and
spoken communication not because they fail to recognize
their importance but because they are not trained to teach
and evaluate these.