STUDY PROGRAMME IN THE FACULTY

Since 2009, the FME has been one of the first pioneers in adopting the CDIO approach for curricular innovation in Viet Nam. The framework provides students with an education stressing engineering fundamentals set in the context of Conceiving — Designing — Implementing — Operating (CDIO) real-world systems and products. Throughout the world, CDIO Initiative collaborators have adopted CDIO as the framework of their curricular planning and outcome-based assessment. The CDIO Initiative was developed with input from academics, industries, engineers, and students and was specifically designed as a template that can be adapted and adopted by any university engineering school. Because CDIO is an open architecture model, it’s available to all university engineering programs to adapt to their specific needs and it is being adopted by a growing number of engineering educational institutions around the world. CDIO was first used in some faculties, namely Aerospace Engineering, Applied Science, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and Mechanical engineering. However, with the success of this pilot project, the CDIO approach has been applied to all education programs at the HCMUT since 2014. Besides, the FME has certified and implemented ISO 9001:2008 since 2015.
The FME has 8 departments, 2 offices, 11 laboratories, 1 computer room, 1 practical training unit, and 1 research and technology transfer center. There are currently 108 full-time and qualified academic staff including lecturers, senior lecturers, associate professors, and professors. Besides, many collaborators come and join the Faculty on short-term training and research activities; postgraduates working on projects supported by government and industry. Annually, many types of equipment and facilities are invested for study and research.
In this evaluation, we evaluated three programs out of seven of our programs: Mechanical Engineer (ME) Program, Mechatronics (MECE) Engineer Program, Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) Program. The three programs have objectives to educate graduates, as a Bachelor of Engineering degree, who are able to achieve the required Program Objectives (PO). The competence is formulated based on Vietnam Education Law that consists of the capability and quality of the workforce, the scope of the workforce in accordance with their expertise, and managerial competence. The program objectives are then translated to program learning outcomes, which are basically emphasized on generic knowledge, specialized knowledge and competence, and skills. The program learning outcomes are then cascaded down to course learning outcomes; and curriculum designed for assisting students to achieve those outcomes.
At the HCMUT, the Program Objectives (PO), Learning Outcome (LO), and curriculum are periodically reviewed and updated to meet key stakeholders’ requirements. These programs have been reviewed and updated in 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2019 and in the middle of the major revisions; as a result some minor adjustments have been in place.
In 2014, there is a remarkable change in the curriculum for every undergraduate program, in which the number of credits changes from about 157 to 142 and the period of study is shortened from 9 to 8 semesters. The major reason is that most engineering programs in Vietnam set for 8 semesters while it is 9 semesters for HCMUT’s programs; which results in more time and cost consumed and might affect employment opportunities of our students, as well as recruitment activities of companies. This change resulted from a three-year study and discussion of the university board of program development comprised of experts in various fields of engineering and technology and education, as well as quality assurance. They worked on the approach to design a 142-credit curriculum, which can be fulfilled in 8 semesters on average but not reduce the quality of outputs. Student intake year of 2018 is the last class to enroll students under the 2014 program and is still studying yet to graduate.
In 2019, all the HCMUT’s programs have the next noticeable change, which is to build a 132-credit Bachelor program (changing from 142 credits to 128-132 credits, a training period of 4 years). The main goal of this change is that the subjects with relevant knowledge will be integrated, which will reduce the number of credits students take in the classroom. Accordingly, all Bachelor’s programs in HCMUT have been revised and restructured in the range of 128 to 132 credits. After meeting, surveying, and unanimously adjusting, the Science Committee of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering decided that all programs of the Faculty have 132 credits. Student intake year of 2019 is the first class to study under this program and is currently a 2nd-year student.
This document focuses on the assessment of programs of 2019 (which is used for cohorts enrolled from 2019 to 2020) whilst also clarifies the continuous improvement through the comparison with the programs 2014 (which is used for cohorts enrolled from 2014-2018).
Every course is accompanied by a course syllabus including course aims, expected learning outcomes, learning outlines, teaching and learning activities, assessment methods, and so on. The active learning and logical strategies have been implemented at FME. The student assessment covers student entrance, progress, and exits test. The student’s progress is evaluated through teaching and learning activities. Student assessment on all courses in a semester is presented in the student’s academic record (transcript) that informs the grade of each subject taken by the student, GPA (Grade Point Average) and CGP (Cumulative Grade Point) will determine the studying status of the student continuously. Every student has an academic advisor since entering the programs and a thesis supervisor for his/her final internship and thesis project.
This supportive staff works at administrative offices, laboratories, libraries, and so on. There are sufficient facilities and infrastructure including a classroom, self-study room, seminar room, laboratories, experimental field, library, computers, medical facilities, and student dormitories for teaching and learning purposes. The FME assures the quality of graduates by regularly checking curriculum evaluation, continuously encouraging all academic staff to sustain the latest development in sciences, and participating in teaching skill enhancement programs. Stakeholder feedback is assessed from students, alumni, academic staff, support staff, and alumnae workplace through some evaluation instruments. The incoming feedback is taken into consideration to improve service for better stakeholder satisfaction and for the study program improvement, including teaching and learning methods, process, and curriculum review.
In addition to teaching and learning, FME and HCMUT provide support services for students in academic activities, scientific research, scholarships, academic exchange activities, scholarships, and school psychology counseling, green summer activities, social activities, study abroad transfer, internationalization in training, teaching, research, etc.