Direct measurement and evaluation for mechanical engineering programme outcomes: Impact on continuous improvement

Abstract

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) is a research university that continuously undergoes an audit and accreditation process for the management of its courses. The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FKAB) is subjected to such processes, one of them is the auditing conducted by the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC), which gives recognition to engineering programmes in Malaysia. The criteria that have been set by the EAC requires the faculty to measure and evaluate graduates based directly on the course outcomes (CO) and programme outcomes (POs) to ensure that they are able to achieve the programme and course objectives. This paper discusses a method developed for the measurement and evaluation of POs which is a direct measurement for assessing the courses offered in the mechanical engineering programme. Assessment templates are developed using a Microsoft Excel based on the data presented on the grade coordination meetings conducted at the end of each semester. The data used for this study were semester 2 2010/2011 session, and semester 1 session 2011/2012. Based on the results obtained, the majority of the courses achieves more than 80% for course level monitoring for their individual PO achievement except for five subjects. For programme level monitoring, from the average POs marks, all POs were scored more than 80%, which indicates that the Mechanical Programs offered by the department are satisfied with the department standard.