Report of the Programme Assessor 2007

 

 

 

Prof  Dr-Ing J.D. Herbel

Faculty of Engineering

Universitat Duisburg-Essen

47048 Duisburg Germany

E-mail: jd.herbell@uni-duisburg-essen.de

 

 

for

 

Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Programme

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Faculty of Engineering

Universiti Kebangsaan, Malaysia


 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

This report was prepared as a result during my visit at UKM (9 July – 14 Sept 2008).  I would like to thank the Administration of UKM and especially Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Marzuki Mustafa for inviting me to do this programme review. During my visit the Chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Professor Ahmad Kamal Ariffin Mohd. Ihsan, was giving a full cocoperation to make sure that I had access to all the relevant information and had the opportunity to meet with the lecturers and professors of the department as well as with a group of students.   He also made sure that my stay at UKM was socially pleasant and interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

1.  INTRODUCTION / GENERAL COMMENTS

 

 

The review from available documents show that the contents of the mechanical engineering programs at UKM are quite similar to other programmes I met in University Duisburg-Essen, Germany, or at China University of Mining & Technolgy in Xuzhou, PR China.  The philosophy, vision, mission, aims and Programme Educational Objectives (PEO) of UKM and the faculty of engineering are outstanding. 

 

 

2.  INDUSTRY

 

 

There are a few reasons why the environmental industry is growing, such as the fact that issues of climate change are moving up the political agenda. Mean that a diverse range of organizations need help to meet these new legal requirements. There is, therefore, an increased means the need to recruit more environmental professionals.

 

Increasing industrial contacts for students and lecturers would have a positive effect on the understanding of local and global issues on environment. A major effort by the department may be necessary to increase industry contacts and establish mutual understanding between industry and UKM such as research cooperation with industry and speakers from industry to give seminars on industry perspective and activities.

 

 

3. ASSESSSMENT OF PROGRAMME OUTCOMES

 

 

Successful integration of cleaner production concepts and technologies will require that students receive adequate training and knowledge. Yet at present, most university programs outside mainstream environmental programs cover little in the way of environmental issues or sustainability and only a few shows how environmental concepts such as cleaner production should be integrated into management, design, engineering, marketing and service.

 

To make sure that the programme fulfill the environmental issues, it should be incorporate in some courses in Mechanical Programme and Manufacturing Programme such as KKKJ2513 Engineering Materials, KKKJ3943 System Design, KKKJ4953 Design Project, KKKP4273 Product Design.

 

 

4. THE FINAL YEAR STUDENT PROJECT AND LAB WORKS

 

 

There are 4 courses entirely devoted to final year thesis (KKKJ4013 / KKKJ4023/KKKP4913/KKKP4923). Student should do the entire final year project and include the effect to the environment as a part from the final year project result. This is not easily done and requires contacts with industries and knowledge of the industrial issues and problems. 

 

One possible improvement would be to have the discussion that relate to environment issues whether attached to the current lab experiment or new lab experiment and to assure that everyone are familiar with the experiments.