Department Self Evaluation

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INCORPORATING INDUSTRY NEEDS IN ENGINEERING
PROGRAMS Dr. Samir Al-Baiyat Dean
College of Engineering Sciences and Acting Dean
College of Applied Engineering King Fahd
University of Petroleum Minerals
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Outline

• Background
• History of Assessment and Accreditation
• Accreditation
• Assessment
• Conclusions

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• Mission
• The mission of the College of Engineering is
• to educate professionals in engineering, to
  create and disseminate knowledge and technology,
• to expand the base of engineering knowledge
  through original research, developing technology
  to serve the needs of society,
• to benefit the public through service to
  industry, government, and the engineering
  profession. 

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Background

• The Colleges of Engineering Sciences and Applied
  Engineering were established in 1387 H (1966).

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Background

• There are six departments in the colleges . These
  are
• Aerospace Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Petroleum Engineering.

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Background

• Each department offers two programs one in
  Engineering Science and the other in Applied
  Engineering.
• The colleges have 164 Professorial rank faculty
  members

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• Current Students Enrollment (2003-2004)
• AE 71
• CHE 338
• CE 130
• EE 1071
• ME 771
• PETE 217

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PROGRAMS ACCREDITATION

• KFUPM for its Quest for Excellence opted for
  independent Assessment for its programs since its
  establishment.

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Why Accreditation?

• Programs Quality Assurance by independent body.
• Recognition of awarded degrees by national
  international bodies.
• Increases graduates employment opportunities.

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PROGRAMS ACCREDITATION

• In the early years KFUPM was associated with a
  Consortium( international body from USA
  universities) for its programs assessment.

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• In the early nineties, the Colleges of
  Engineering sought international accreditation by
  Accreditation Board for Engineering Technology
  (ABET).
• Both Engineering Programs (ES AE) are ABET
  Accredited (1993 and 2002).

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• Currently the Electrical and Mechanical
  Engineering Programs are going for
  Self-Assessment.

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Self Assessment

• Self assessment is an assessment conducted by
  the institution to assess whether programs meet
  their educational objectives and outcomes with
  the purpose to improve programs quality and
  enhancing students learning.

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The Role of the Industry

• The new emphasis in assessment is shifted from
  being prescriptive based to outcome-based.

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• This new emphasis can not be achieved without the
  industrys effective input and active
  interaction.

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Current avenues of interaction

• Industrial advisory committees at the level of
  the college and each department
• Employers Surveys
• Alumni Surveys

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• Cooperative and summer programs
• Capstone design projects mentors
• Research projects
• Short Courses
• Technical Exchange Meetings and seminars

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Applied Engineering Program
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• Objectives are to study the followings
• present structure of AE Programs
• format and length of the program,
• procedure of placement,
• process of monitoring and evaluation

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Observation

• There are no programs offered at North American
  Universities entitled AE.
• ES programs at KFUPM may be mapped to Engineering
  Programs at North American Universities.
• ES programs at North American Universities are
  more of Research/Development type.

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Observations (Cont.)

• Some programs have different format for Coop
  training.

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SURVEY

• Participant of the Survey
• KFUPM alumni
• Employers of KFUPM graduates
• KFUPM faculty
• KFUPM senior students

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Responses

• Alumni 79
• Employers 78
• Faculty 99
• Senior students 103

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Employer Survey

• The intention of the Employer Survey is to draw a
  clear picture about the nature of the industrial
  organizations in the Kingdom, their size, their
  principal functions, the number of KFUPM
  graduates they are employing, their needs and use
  of different soft and hard skills.

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Principal Function of Participating
Department/Unit
Power Generation and Distribution 24
Financial Services 17
Petrochemical and Related Industries 13
Petroleum Production Industry 12
Computer and Information Technology 6
Telecommunication Industry 4
Others 19
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Involvement of Participating Organizations
Planning, Design and Coordination 15
Production and Manufacturing Engineering 14
Marketing 10
Human Resources 9
Information Technology 7
Installation, Operation and Maintenance 7
Others 28
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Number of University Graduates Currently Working
in Participating Departments/Units
1-5 31
6-10 18
11-20 13
21-50 24
Over 50 14
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Skills and Knowledge Relevant to Employment
Area of skills and Knowledge Strongly Relevant or Relevant
Basic Sciences, Mathematics, Physics 73
Knowledge in the subject of the Academic Major 73
Computer Skills 92
Relevant Design Skills 60
Ability to Adapt 88
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Skills and Knowledge Relevant to Employment
Technical Problem Solving Skills 8
Initiative and Perception 91
Managerial Skills 65
Decision Making 79
Presentation and Technical Writing Skills 83
Interpersonal and Communication Skills 91
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Observation

• Interpersonal and communication skills, computer
  skills, and initiative and perception are the
  most relevant/used skills.
• Design skills are the least relevant/used skills.

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Graduate Performance
Area of Skills and Knowledge KFUPM Graduates w/ Co-Op Other Institution's Graduates
Basic Sciences, Mathematics, Physics 51 44
Knowledge in the subject of the Academic Major 60 37
Computer Skills 68 38
Relevant Design Skills 44 36
Ability to Adapt 60 29
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Graduate Performance
Technical Problem Solving Skills 42 33
Initiative and Perception 44 32
Managerial Skills 31 27
Decision Making 40 36
Presentation and Technical Writing Skills 45 32
Interpersonal and Communication Skills 53 38
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Usefulness of Summer and Co-Op Employment to
Participating Department/Units
Training Summer Training Co-Op Employment
Very Useful 17 50
Useful 32 33
Maybe Useful 40 14
Useless 8 1
Totally Useless 4 0
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Employment Preference
Training Preference
With Co-Op 63
Without Co-Op 2
Equally Preferable 35
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Alumni Survey

• Objective
• The objective of the Alumni Survey is to draw
  clear picture about the nature of the jobs
  performed by KFUPM alumni and the relevance and
  usefulness of the courses taught at KFUPM to
  their career.

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Nature of Industrial Organization
54 is petrochemical and related industries
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Principal Function of the Department/Unit of the
Alumni
64 are in inst., Oper., Maint., Desi., Manu.
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Alumni Participation
39
Years of Experience of Participating Alumni
40
Position of Participating Alumni
47 Engineering 44 Management
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Functions Performed by the Participating Alumni

• More than 50 of the total working time of the
  participating alumni is spent in doing the
  following functions
• 27 consulting, maintenance, management,
  planning, quality control and sales,
• 15 estimating
• 7 construction.

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Relevance of Courses Taught at KFUPM

• Core Courses 50
• Electives 47
• Computer packages 34
• Numerical methods
• and statistics 44
• LAB experiments 46

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Adequacy of Courses Taught at KFUPM

• Math 91
• Physics 87
• Amount of LABs 78
• Oral communications 63
• Written communications 72

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Faculty Survey
The intention of faculty survey is solicit the
faculty opinion about their awareness of the
objectives of the Coop and Applied Engineering
program, their involvement in the Coop training
program, their views regarding the improvement of
the Applied Engineering program.
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• 82 are aware of the Applied Engineering
  objectives
• 74 see no difference the two programs

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How to improve the Applied Engineering Program?
Make Technical Courses Application oriented 52
Introduce new Technical Courses 13
Reduce amount of Physics 4
Reduce amount of Mathematics 0
All of the above 32
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Results

• 92 aware of the objectives of Coop Program
• 82 involved in the Coop Program
• 63 are advisors for Coop students
• 59 consider 9 credit hours are HIGH
• 85 suggest to keep Coop training but with
  improvements

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Satisfaction with the outcome
Presentation and Communication Skills 57
Report Writing Skills 71
Practical Knowledge Gained 37
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How to improve Coop training
Communication between Students and Advisor 3
Interaction between Co-Op Advisors and Workplace 31
Appropriate Placement 11
Availability of Training Program 6
Awareness about Co-Op Objectives 18
Others 30
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Student Survey
The intention of the student survey is to solicit
the opinion of the students regarding the reasons
of joining the Coop training program, their
awareness about its objectives, the outcome and
the number of credit hours allocated.
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Opinion about the Coop
Relevance of Training with Academic Major 99
Practical or Technical Experience Gained 92
Knowledge Gained about Work Environment 92
Communications Skills Gained 96
Awareness of Employers about Co-Op 63
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General Observations

• Based on the results obtained from the alumni,
  employer, student and faculty surveys it appears
  that there is a real need to make a distinctive
  difference between the programs of Engineering
  Science and Applied Engineering.

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Conclusions

• The colleges of engineering will maintain a world
  class engineering education through effective
  interaction with the industry.
• The feedback from the industry in maintaining a
  world class engineering education is very vital.

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• The department industrial advisory committees
  provide invaluable guidance and support to the
  effort.
• The Colleges of Engineering will continuously
  solicit the feedback from the industry through
  different avenues.

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Thank You