Quality civil engineering education - the second link

There is a growing recognition of this offcampus vis-A -vis part-time education as an effective means to provide mass and democratic education to all, the needy and the deprived. There is equally an increasing need to provide opportunity to these students to acquire knowledge and skills. In view of this, SPACE UTM has towed a line to lead smart collaborations with other institutions to harness technical and engineering personnel to meet the workforce demand of the nation. At present, SPACE has over 5400 students undergoing 23 pert-time courses in engineering and technology. To ensure quality engineering education, all engineering programmes are monitored by the Engineering Accreditation Council of the Board of Engineers Malaysia (EAC). In addition, the Quality Assurance Standard outlined by the Ministry of Higher Learning Malaysia acts as a check. Measures to ensure quality must be considered early in the course design stage. This paper highlights the issues to be addressed by engineering education providers to safeguard the quality of their academic programmes. It relates to the experience undertaken by the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FKA) and emphasises on the importance of efficient management of students, and Faculty - SPACE coordination in assuring and maintaining quality engineering education.