Learning performance analysis of engineering graduate students from two differently ranked universities using course outcomes

One of the authors has experience in teaching a graduate-level course at two universities: A and B. The College of Engineering of University A is ranked as a top-ten school in the U.S. while the rank of the College of Engineering of University B is around 50. This experience has provided the author a unique opportunity to compare the learning performance of graduate students in Engineering from these two universities based on the analysis of course outcomes. The objective of this work is to identify whether the difference of learning performance between the graduate students from these two universities is as significant as the difference in the university ranks. The hypothesis testing method has been followed to compare the course outcomes. The analysis results show no strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that the learning performances are distinguishable. The implications of the findings have been discussed as well.