Ingenieur Vol.72 ingenieur October 2017-FA3 | Page 6

INGENIEUR
Engineering
Education
M
alaysia’s formal engineering education
started with the establishment of a
technical school at the turn of the last
century. Today, the country prides itself as a
regional hub of education with more than 45
universities offering engineering programmes.
That the US News Education Ranking 2017 places
University of Malaya among the world’s top 10
universities in engineering programmes is an
important milestone on the journey to produce
quality engineering graduates.
Additionally, Malaysia’s signatory to the
Washington Accord, Sydney Accord and Dublin
Accord under the purview of the International
Engineering Alliance has further positioned the
country as the centre of excellence in engineering
education. The Director-General of the Higher
Education Department attributed this international
recognition as one of the key factors that has
helped Malaysia to attract more foreign students
to local universities. This Department aspires
to create holistic, entrepreneurial and balanced
graduates who are not just job seekers but also
job creators.
The role of BEM in maintaining education
standard of the engineering team through its
accreditation bodies namely the Engineering
Accreditation Council (EAC) and Engineering
Technology Accreditation Council (ETAC) is well
explained in this issue’s article on “Enhancing
Engineering Education Standard in Malaysia”.
As signatory to the Washington Accord, EAC
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JUNE 2013
accredited engineering programmes are mutually
recognised by all 18 full signatories that include
among others; US, UK, Russia, Australia and
China.
With rapidly changing technology in industry
resulting in complex problems to be solved
among interdisciplinary teams, the importance
of preparing graduates to meet the demands of
Education 4.0 is well highlighted in the article
“Interdisciplinary Capstone Design Project
in Engineering Curriculum”. The issues and
challenges mentioned in tackling the concepts
from the student’s own discipline with students
from other engineering disciplines serve as good
reference to universities embarking on such
programmes. In all, it prepares undergraduates to
meet the real work environment which deals with
complex technical problems.
The article on “Early Technical Education
in Malaysia” is a good reflection of the humble
beginnings of the only available technical training
of that era. Malaysia is now blessed with a wide
variety of engineering programmes of international
standard to choose from. However, BEM will
work with Malaysian Quality Agency (MQA) to
ensure that the standard is well maintained and
enhanced.
As the last issue for 2017, I wish all readers a
“Happy New Year”.
Dato’ Sri Ir. Dr Roslan bin Md Taha
President BEM