Accreditation Engineering Scenario and Future of Engineering Education in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Tan, CheeFai, Ranjit, S.S.S., Ong, S.T., Ngeow, Y.W.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: L Education (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/4231/1/C_FEIAP2011.pdf; http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/4231/

Engineering education in Malaysia is a strong and vibrant enterprise. Malaysia government is projecting to produce 222,000 engineering graduates in the next 9 years. This number of engineers is needed to ensure the development industries, infrastructures and general well-being of Malaysia are carried out as planned. However, since Malaysia has engineers in various fields, engineers have provided the driving forces behind high technology services and products to enhance the Malaysia economy growth locally and internationally. It is also cited that there are 33 accredited engineering programmes in Malaysia universities and colleges. Engineering degree is the common degree entry to the engineering profession nowadays, such as civil engineering, electrical engineering, electronics engineering and mechanical engineering. The Malaysia engineering degree requires a completion of four years full time study. For an engineering degree programme to be recognize, all the engineering degrees in Malaysia are governed by Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC). EAC ensure all the engineering degree programmes that are offered by Malaysian universities are subjected to the minimum academic requirements for registration as a graduate engineer with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM). BEM is representing Malaysia in Washington Accord since 2009, engineering education in Malaysia took on a broader international aspect and agreed to achieve equivalent standard with the other 14 signatories’ countries. Due to the upcoming challenges of the future, it is ideated that Malaysia engineers must progress working hard with all the necessary technical competencies in engineering science. This role is very important so that they will be flexible enough to be involved in multidisciplinary engineering tasks in Malaysia and around the world. Globalization is a trend that affects humanities, cultures, traditions and history of a country. Globalisation is defined as “the flow of people, culture, ideas, values, knowledge, technology, and economy across borders facilitating a more interconnected and interdependent world”. Engineering graduates are facing fierce challenges and competition not only locally but also internationally. Due to the global challenges and competition, local engineering graduates need to equip themselves with flexibility, ethics, professionalism, knowledge and skill in facing the global challenges. Government, educational institutions and industry plays an important role to upgrade the quality of local engineering education. The modern engineering profession deals constantly with uncertainty, incomplete data and competing (often conflicting) demands from clients, governments, environmental groups and the public. It requires technical competent and professionalism skill, as well as to be exposed to the global scenarios, current trend and future requirements. Whilst trying to incorporate more “humanity” skill into their knowledge base and professional practice, today’s engineers must also cope with continual technological and organizational changes in the workplace. In addition they must cope with the commercial realities of industrial practice in the modern world, as well as the legal consequences of every professional decision they make. The challenge for engineering education in Malaysia is to improve the current engineering education system so that the Malaysia engineering graduates are recognized internationally. Nevertheless, engineering education in Malaysia is constantly reviewed together with the professional members from the industries and education departmental. This study is expected to provide the current scenario of engineering education which later will foresee effect and the future design of accreditated engineering curriculum in Malaysia. This aim of this paper is to describe the modelled current scenario of accreditated engineering education and the accreditation process on future engineering education in Malaysia.