Introduction to Engineering

Accreditation & OBE

“The FKE UTeM Experience”
Hyreil Anuar Bin Hj Kasdirin
Department of Control, Instrumentation & Automation (CIA)
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
Email: hyreil@utem.edu.my
Homepage: www.utem.edu.my/myweb/hyreil
Contact No: 06-555 2226 / Fax: ext 2222
 Presentation Outcomes
► Identify& evaluate the importance of
Engineering Accreditation by EAC
► Define the OBE and its implementation in
the faculty
► Acknowledge the process of application for
Accreditation
 Presentation Outcomes

► Identify& evaluate the importance of

Engineering Accreditation by EAC
 Why Need Accreditation?
►Why Should My Program Seek
Accreditation? Why it is important?
ƒ Accreditation provides you with a structured
mechanism to assess, evaluate, and improve
the quality of your program.
ƒ Accreditation helps students, their parents, and
also future employers to choose quality & well-
prepared programs.
ƒ Accreditation is used by registration, licensure,
and certification boards to screen applicants.
 Why Need Accreditation?
► Why Should I Choose an Accredited
Program?
►Accreditation assures that a program has met quality
standards set by the profession.
►To employers, graduate schools, and licensure,
certification, and registration boards, graduation
from an accredited program signifies adequate
preparation for entry into the profession. In fact,
many of these groups require graduation from an
accredited program as a minimum qualification.
 Are our faculty graduate is an
Engineer, Technologist or Technician?
► There are three agreements covering mutual recognition
in respect of tertiary-level qualifications in engineering:
ƒ The Washington Accord signed in 1989 was the first - it
recognises substantial equivalence in the accreditation of
qualifications in professional engineering, normally of four years
duration.
ƒ The Sydney Accord commenced in 2001 and recognizes
substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in
engineering technology, normally of three years duration.
ƒ The Dublin Accord is an agreement for substantial equivalence in
the accreditation of tertiary qualifications in technician
engineering, normally of two years duration. It commenced in
2002.
 Why must be accredited by The
Washington Accord?
► The Washington Accord, is an international agreement
among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering
degree programs. It recognizes the substantial equivalency
of programs accredited by those bodies and recommends
that graduates of programs accredited by any of the
signatory bodies be recognized by the other bodies as
having met the academic requirements for entry to the
practice of engineering.
► One of the Accredited Programs from The
Washington Accord is
ƒ ABET - (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)
 Why must be accredited by The
Washington Accord?
► Organizations holding provisional status have been
identified as having qualification accreditation or
recognition procedures that are potentially suitable for the
purposes of the Accord
ƒ * Germany - Represented by German Accreditation Agency for
Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics
ƒ * India - Represented by National Board of Accreditation of All
India Council for Technical Education
ƒ * Malaysia - Represented by Board of Engineers - Malaysia
Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC)
ƒ * Russia - Represented by Russian Association for Engineering
Education
ƒ * Sri Lanka - Represented by Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka
ƒ etc
 Why must be accredited by The
Washington Accord?
The Need for an Outcomes Approach for
Continual Program Improvement (CQI)

Quality Assurance Division ,

and
Ministry of Higher the
Education
A MULTINATIONAL AGREEMENT FOR THE MUTUAL
RECOGNITION OF ENGINEERING DEGREES
Among member countries:
ƒ substantial equivalency of accreditation systems.
ƒ graduates prepared to practice engineering at the
entry level
 Why must be accredited by The
Washington Accord?
Malaysia’s WA Application
► Malaysia admitted as Provisional Member in 2003, alongside
Germany, Japan, & Singapore
► An exercise in internationalization
► Demands the attainment of a global level of quality assurance

Implications of WA membership
► WA demands 2 major efforts :-
1. Improvement of procedures, documentation, criteria, etc -
easily attainable
2. “a genuine shift towards OBE” in the Malaysian Engineering
Education System - requires bigger effort
Existing: conventional prescriptive-based system
 Why Need Accreditation?
EAC, Engineering Accreditation Council,
Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM)
• Formed in 2000
Previous accreditation for engineering programs :
PSD (1957) → IEM (1959) → BEM (1967) → LAN(1996)

MCED, Malaysian
EAC Council for
Engineering Deans

BEM
IEM
PSD
LAN/MQA /JPA
 Why Need Accreditation?
GOVERNED BY THE REGISTRATION OF ENGINEERS ACT 1967
(Revised 2002)
• no person is allowed to practice unless he Programs to be
is a professional engineer accredited in 2009
• professional engineer may use “Ir” before
his name OR “PEng” after his name
will have to be
based on OBE
• graduate engineer to register before
taking up employment as an engineer

Those who has successfully completed an accredited

engineering programme by EAC
Professional Engineer - a graduate engineer who has obtained
the prescribed practical experience, passed the Professional
Assessment Examination, and satisfied all other requirements of the
Board of Engineers (BEM)
 Presentation Outcomes

► Define the OBE and its implementation in

the faculty
What is OBE? The Current Scenario
The concept of program educational OBJECTIVES and
OUTCOMES is unfamiliar to most universities, this leads to
the tendency of imparting and evaluating only technical
outcomes of graduates.
Too much focus on curriculum and educational process.
Very prescriptive.
For example: BITG1113
• Prescriptive: Students would be exposed to the C
language.
• Outcomes : Students should be to make use of
the C language in programming.
What is OBE? The Current Scenario
Program are reviewed every 5 years based on universities’
own review and comments from external examiners, i.e. no
input from industrial and other stakeholders in program
quality improvement.
Universities are seen not serious enough to develop the
more well-rounded outcomes of graduates in a systematic
way.
The seriousness is not manifested from the curriculum,
learning design, assessment and evaluation methods.
Accreditation process gives too much emphasis on the
content and process and very prescriptive.
What is OBE? The Current Scenario

Doesn’t require documented evidences on the achievement

of the graduate attributes.
Doesn’t include external stakeholders or constituencies in
any accreditation exercise and hence no feed back is
received from these very important components.
Not much assurance on the delivery of the outcome
capabilities in every graduate.
 What is OBE? The Advantages
► Alert and concern Æ qualities of the graduates produced.
► CQI with input and feedback from various
constituencies or external stakeholders
► Students are well informed and trained of the skills
required out of them
► Encourage more systematic, innovative and flexible
teaching approach or learning design – for example: AL &
PBL
► Encourage more exposures to professional practice
through LI, site visits, industry-linked projects or
assignments, industry mentors, student dialogue with
industry professionals or visiting industry speakers.
► Higher assurance of the delivery of the outcome
capabilities in every graduate.
 What is OBE?
(OUTCOME BASE EDUCATION)

Outcome-Based
Education - A Shift in Focus
from curricula, resources and processes
towards outcomes and objectives.
Talking about OBE, there are 3 levels:
1. Philosophy / Theory / ”Broad Perspective”
2. Curricula / structures / procedures
3. Classroom practice (PBL, CL, AL, etc)

Make sure we’re talking at the same

level
 What is OBE?
Outcome-Based
Education - A More Logical Way
Example: Reasons for introducing a new course:
Conventional: - tradition - a professor wants it
OBE approach: - does it contribute to desired outcome/s?

- Some Immediate Advantages

• Always alert on quality of graduates
• .More effective & innovative teaching
- PBL, CL, etc
• More industry input
 What is OBE?
(OUTCOME BASE EDUCATION)
ƒ OBE is a model of education that rejects the
traditional focus on what the school provides to
students, in favor of making students demonstrate
that they "know and are able to do" whatever the
required outcomes are.
ƒ The emphasis in an OBE education system is on
measured “outcomes” rather than "inputs," such
as how many hours students spend in class, or what
textbooks are provided.
ƒ OUTCOMES
► may include a range of skills and knowledge.
► The key things students should understand and be able to do
or the qualities they should develop.
► If the outcomes are not achieved they are rethought as to
ensure there is a Continual Quality Improvement (CQI)
within the education system.
 OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation
Accreditation will be made on the OUTCOME-BASED
EDUCATION (OBE) program

Which means that our program will have to be based on

OBE
NO OBE = NO ACCREDITATION

The program that has greater focus on PEO & PO means

that all stakeholders must have a say in establishing
them, and measuring them.
(Stakeholders – industry, faculty, students, government,
alumni, etc)
 OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation

Different Levels of OBE

► Program Educational ► PEO - Few years after
Objectives, PEO graduation
► Program Outcome, PO ► PO - Upon graduation
► Course or Subject or ► LO - Upon subject
Outcomes / Learning completion
Outcomes, LO
► Weekly or Topic ► Upon weekly / topic
Outcomes completion
 OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation
What will be involved in the process towards OBE?
► Course Content
ƒ Reviewing course content to suit specified Learning Outcomes, current
development, industrial needs, job specifications, professional body
requirement (accreditation), own niche, etc.

► Teaching-Learning Methods
ƒ Introducing innovative/flexible teaching methods/delivery tools to
develop PEO and PO in students/graduates

► Assessment & Evaluation Tools

ƒ Introducing variety of assessment and evaluation tools to measure the
achievement of PEO and PO.

► Data & Evidence Collection

ƒ Collecting evidences of process involved and the achievement of the
PEO and PO.
 OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION
For EAC accreditation
Assessment

Assessment

Assessment
Alumni

Analysis
Analysis

Analysis
Missions
Visions PEO PO LO
Stakeholders

Advisory committee CQI

CQI

CQI
 Presentation Outcomes

► Acknowledge the process of application for

Accreditation
 Application for Accreditation
► FKE History
ƒ BEKP – Full-Accreditation 2004
ƒ BEKC & BEKE
►2 years Accreditation 2007
► Submission for Extension 2009

ƒ BEKM – Submission for Application 2009

► Submission to EAC for Accreditation Application
ƒ Refer http://www.bem.org.my/v3/downloads.html
ƒ Select Accreditation Æ Engineering Programme
Accreditation Manual Æ the EAC Manual 2007.pdf
 Application for Accreditation
EAC Manual 2007
► Evaluation by EAC Members: MQA, JPA, BEM and IEM
► How they evaluate?

ƒ It conducted to verify that the program under evaluation is in compliance

with the appropriate accreditation criteria in this Manual.
ƒ The evaluation exercise shall be conducted by an Evaluation Panel
appointed by EAC (refer to Appendix A).

► What type of decision they make?

ƒ Accreditation Decision: through the recommendation by the Evaluation

Panel may decide on one of the following:
► (i) To accord full accreditation for five years.
► (ii) To accord less than five years accreditation.
► (iii) To decline accreditation. In such a case, a further application will normally
not be considered within the next one year.
 Application for Accreditation
EAC Manual 2007

► What is their procedure?

ƒ Apply for Accreditation
► For a new program, should apply at least 6 months before the
final examination of the first intake of students.
► For a current accredited program, should apply at least 6
months before the expiry date of the accreditation.
► The application shall ensure that complete information is
forwarded to EAC through MQA.
Accreditation Visit
► Normally be scheduled for a period of two days.
Report and Recommendation
► The report and recommendation, prepared by the visiting
panels in accordance to Appendix D : Evaluation Panel Report
 Application for Accreditation
EAC Manual 2007
► Qualifying Requirements and Accreditation
Criteria
ƒ The assessment involves a review of qualifying
requirements and an evaluation based on the following
criteria, apart from PEO and PO:
► Criterion 1 ‐ Academic Curriculum
► Criterion 2 ‐ Students
► Criterion 3 ‐ Academic and Support staff
► Criterion 4 ‐ Facilities
► Criterion 5 ‐ Quality Management Systems
ƒ The assessment process will involve two parts:
► (i) Initial assessment of qualifying requirements.
► (ii) Detailed assessment of the program based on the
accreditation criteria.
 Application for Accreditation
EAC Manual 2007

► Accreditation Documents
ƒ For each program to be accredited:
►i. Self Assessment Report (Section 8.2 EAC
Manual) ‐ Hardcopy
►ii. Supporting Material Document (Section 8.3
EAC Manual) – Digital Format including details of the
syllabus.
►iii. Appendix C (Checklist of Documents for
Accreditation/Approval of New program & Relevant
Information)
►Institutional Documents and Additional
Documentation (as noted in Section 8.4) to be made
available during the visit.
 Application for Accreditation
EAC Manual 2007

► EAC’s Decision (Received panel report less

than 4-weeks)
ƒ to recommend approval of the program to be
conducted
ƒ to recommend conditional approval for the
program to be conducted with the provision
that the IHL takes certain actions to rectify all
the shortcomings indicated in the report within
a specified period as determined by EAC
ƒ not to recommend approval.
 Self-Assessment Report
► Qualifying Requirements
ƒ Minimum 120 credit hours of which 80 credit hours
must be engineering subjects
ƒ Final year project & Industrial training
ƒ Minimum of 8 full‐time academic staff
ƒ Staff : student ratio of 1:25 or better (ideally it
should be 1:15 or better)
ƒ External examiner's report
ƒ Program Educational Objectives (PEO) & Programme
Outcomes (PO)
 Self-Assessment Report
► Their Details & Process Implementations
► Their establishment and evaluation of
achievement as well as CQI
► Assessment Report
ƒ PEO & PO ► Program structure, content, delivery &
assessment and CQI
ƒ 1: Academic Curriculum ► Their distributions (engineering, non-eng,
semester)

ƒ 2: Students ► Admission Process, policies, credit transfer,

workload
► Involvement in Student Organizations
ƒ 3: Academic and Support ► Strength & competencies (academic, support
staff staff)
► Overall workload & professional qualifications

ƒ 4: Facilities ► The adequacy of P&P and support facilities

► The faculty/university structure

ƒ 5: Quality Management ► Program planning, development, & review as
well as feedback
Systems ► External examiner feedback
► Quality assurances & benchmarking
Questions & Breakthrough
 Reference
► Presentation Slides from
ƒ Prof Ir Dr Hj Wan Hamidon Hj Wan
Badaruzzaman
ƒ Prof Ir Dr Hassan Basri
► http://eacaccreditation.blogspot.com/
► http://www.abet.org/
► http://www.washingtonaccord.org/
► http://www.bem.org.my/v3/index.html
Thank you very much