Student problems in software engineering education

That software engineering is difficult to teach is widely understood and much discussed. Less well understood, and certainly less discussed, is the inverse of this-that software engineering is a particularly difficult subject to learn. More than any other subject in computing, software engineering reveals wide differences in ability leaving a long ´tail´ of less able students struggling with basic material. This is particularly serious because, for most graduates in computing, software engineering will form the core of their professional practice. The author examines the characteristic problems encountered by students of software engineering. If one is able to identify these problems one should be able to develop educational strategies to overcome, or at any rate to alleviate, them.<>