DEVELOPMENT OF MODULAR ELECTIVE COURSE FOR BACHELOR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS COHORT 2015 - 2020: ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The Department of Chemical and Process Engineering (JKKP), Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia has taken an initiative during the curriculum revision in 2016 to conduct their elective course in modular form for the year IV students since cohort intake 2015/2016 until 2019/2020. Module development method was based on benchamarking that was performed between a number of reknown local and international universities, also via direct input from the appointed industrial advisory panels and research surey with relevant industries. It is an effort to allow the students to choose their majoring course in chemical engineering field following the combination of courses offered, in order for them to be more focused with their interest. JKKP has introduced 3 modular elective courses namely bioprocess, process system engineering and industrial process. This approach is believed could benefit the students by giving more options for them in enrolling for these compulsory elective courses in a more structured way during their final semester of study. This practice is far different from the former one, which possessed least number of subject courses and the subject lists were randomly chosen during the enrolment. In the new curriculum, more subjects are offered per module in order to follow the industrial needs especially in the major areas identified. This work was conducted to compare the difference between elective course offered in the department for the period of before and after the curriculum revision. Next, the student preference was investigated upon selecting these modular courses. It was found that most of the students preferred to choose industrial process module followed by process system engineering and lastly the bioprocess module. Through this practice, the student interest towards the given majoring areas as per modules can be identified. Positive feedbacks were also received whereby the students think that the modular elective course should be continued in the future so that they would have a clearer career direction based on the courses selected. Apart from that, there are also challenges that need to be overcome by the department in a way to nurture more student interest towards the least popular area/field such as bioprocess. For instance by improving the quality of teaching and teaching materials used as well as involving industries in multiple ways to promote interest on the targeted areas. With the production of chemical engineering graduates in various field sufficiently, is believed should be able to supply competent workforces in the recent era of industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0).