OVERVIEW ON THE BENCHMARK MINIMUM ACADEMIC STANDARD FOR ENGINEERING QUALIFICATIONS IN NIGERIA

Transcription

1 OVERVIEW ON THE BENCHMARK MINIMUM ACADEMIC STANDARD FOR ENGINEERING QUALIFICATIONS IN NIGERIA ABSTRACT By J. A. OLORUNMAIYE Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin. Nigeria. Former member of council of COREN. Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, National Universities Commission are both involved in establishing Benchmark minimum accreditation standards for professional engineers whereas National Board for Technical Education have developed minimum accreditation standards for training engineering Technologists, engineering Technicians and engineering craftsmen. An overview of these minimum standards is presented. There is need to periodically review and update these Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards to make the criteria for registration of engineering personnel in Nigeria comparable to those of other nations. NOMENCLATURE Abbreviations ABET ABET, Inc. (Formerly Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) BMAS Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards CGPA Cumulative Grade Point Average COREN - Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria EAB Engineering Accreditation Board (UK) EAC Engineering accreditation Council (Malaysia) HND Higher National Diploma NBTE National Board for Technical Education ND National diploma NUC National Universities Commission 1

2 NVC National Vocational Certificate NVQF National Vocational Qualification Framework PGDE Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering TVE Technical and Vocational Education VEI Vocational Enterprise Institution 1. INTRODUCTION There are three aspects of quality assurance for engineering personnel, namely; Accreditation of academic programmes for their training; Certification of engineering practitioners; and Life-long learning to ensure that the engineering personnel remain up-to-date. Accreditation is used as a tool for quality assessment and control of quality of training programmes offered by the tertiary institutions in various engineering disciplines [1, 2]. It has also been observed that accreditation serves as: a change agent by providing direction for the institution; mandatory peer review mechanism, a tool for prevention of complacency in running engineering programmes, and a means for promoting healthy competition among institutions running engineering programmes as they share best practice [3]. Another important role of accreditation is that it ensures transnational mobility and employability for engineering practitioners [4]. Decree 55 of 1970 and decree 27 of 1992 as amendment now contained in cap E 11 of the laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004 as the Engineers (Registration, etc.) Act empowers Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) to lay down minimum standard of knowledge and skills required of persons who want to be registered as Engineers, Engineering Technologists, Engineering Technicians and Engineering Craftsmen. The law also empowers COREN to raise those standards from time to time as circumstances may permit [5]. Decree No. 16 of 1985 which is contained in the National Universities Commission (NUC) amended Decree No 48 of 1988 also gives the NUC the power to set the minimum standard for all programmes run by universities in Nigeria including engineering programmes [6]. Thus professional degree programmes taught in Nigerian universities are subjected to meeting the minimum standards set by NUC and the professional bodies to which those programmes belong. 2

3 In recognition of this, participants drawn from Nigerian universities and industries at the workshop organized by COREN from 10 th to 11 th May, 2013 unanimously agreed that COREN should make reference to NUC Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) while rewriting its own BMAS so that incidences of divergences in results of accreditation exercise by COREN and NUC will be minimized as stated by the president of COREN in his preface to the COREN BMAS [5]. Established by Act No. 9 of 11 th Jan, 1977, Act 16 of 1985 (Education Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institution Act) and Act 9 of 1993 (Education National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institution (Amendment Act), the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) is mandated to handle all aspects of Technical and Vocational Education falling outside university education [7]. The NBTE supervises and regulates through accreditation exercises, the programmes offered by technical institutions at secondary and post-secondary school levels. In collaboration with relevant agencies, the NBTE through the National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) enhances standards and quality of skills acquisition in engineering trades such as: Motor Vehicle Mechanics, Machine Woodworking, Electrical Installation and Maintenance, and Fabrication and Welding, in Nigeria. Therefore, the mandate of NBTE covers three cadres of engineering practitioners, namely: Engineers, Engineering Technologists, Engineering Technicians and Engineering Craftsmen. Thus, both NUC and COREN have mandates for prescribing minimum academic standards in the training of engineers, while both NBTE and COREN are empowered to prescribe minimum standards for the training of Engineering Technologists, Engineering technicians and Engineering Craftsmen. In prescribing minimum academic standards in accreditation documents, it is important to take note of Nagel s recommendation [4]: Accreditation criteria have to be sufficiently specific to guarantee minimum competency requirements but they must provide the necessary flexibility to allow the distinctive character of individual programs. Joint COREN/NBTE teams carry out accreditation exercise for engineering technology programmes run in polytechnics, whereas for the universities, NUC and COREN carry out accreditation visits to engineering programmes separately. Efforts made by COREN to reach out to NUC to harmonize accreditation criteria and have joint accreditation teams have not yielded the desired results. 3

4 The aim of this paper is to present overview of the minimum academic standards for the training of professional Engineers, Engineering Technologists, Engineering Technicians and Engineering Craftsmen. 2. OVERVIEW OF BENCHMARK MINIMUM ACADEMIC STANDARDS FOR THE TRAINING OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS. A pair of senior engineers is chosen to visit each academic programme to be accredited, one from academia and the other from industry. One of the pair of engineers selected for all the engineering programmes for accreditation or re-accreditation is a council member who serves as team leader for the accreditation visit to the institution. Secretarial services are provided by COREN headquarters and zonal or area office nearest to the institution. The host institution bears the cost of accreditation visit. To maintain quality, institutions are not allowed to run engineering degree programmes on a part-time basis. Therefore, bachelor s degree and post-graduate diploma programmes in all engineering disciplines are expected to be run as full-time programmes. The originally-american course-unit system is used in all academic programmes run in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. 2.1 Bachelor s Degree Programmes A bachelor s degree in engineering variously called Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Engineering, Bachelor of Technology in Nigerian universities, earned in an accredited engineering programme, is the minimum academic requirement for becoming a registered engineer in Nigeria. The BMAS book is divided into sections I, II and III, titled General Requirements for Engineering Programmes to be Accredited, Specific Requirements for Each Engineering Discipline and COREN Accreditation Score Sheet Section I Section I starts with reference to the law empowering COREN to carry out accreditation of engineering programmes. 4

5 The aim of running engineering programmes which is to produce engineers suitable for selfemployment and employment in public service or the private sector is clearly stated. Guideline is given for those preparing curriculum for engineering programmes to reflect the vision and mission of the institution in their philosophy and objectives for running each engineering discipline. Some stipulations for institutions that want to run engineering programmes are given in this section, among them are: Securing COREN approval before commencement of an engineering programme; Engineering programmes to be domiciled in one or more faculties or schools of engineering; The Provosts of Colleges of Engineering, Deans of Faculties or Schools of Engineering and Heads of Departments running engineering programmes must be engineers registered by COREN; Students are to have at least eight months of industrial training during the third and fourth year of their programme; the minimum duration for industrial training should not be affected by student unrest or industrial action by lecturers; Provision of adequate supervision for students on industrial training; The minimum acceptable student performance to be a cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 2.0 at the end of the first year with 75% of credit units passed in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry courses; From the second year, students are to have CGPA greater than or equal to 1.5; Engineers who have Master s degree in an area of specialization in Engineering should be placed on Lecturer II grade level, while those who have a Ph.D. are to be appointed or upgraded to Lecturer I; Student-staff ratio is not to exceed 15 : 1; The maximum number of students per level from 200 to 500 level are specified with Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering having 25, which is the least and Civil Engineering having highest which is 60; A minimum of six full-time academic staff made-up of at least two Ph.D. s and four Master s degree holder are required for each engineering programme; and Minimum expected office spaces for different categories of staff in a college or faculty of Engineering are specified. The list of facilities, laboratories and workshops common to all engineering disciplines and the list of equipment expected in them are given. 5

6 The academic qualifications required for admission into first year, second year and third year of degree programmes are specified. One important aspect covered in Section I is the expected learning outcomes for students who have passed through accredited engineering programmes in Nigerian universities. However, there is inadequate provision for measuring and scoring these outcomes in the BMAS book. A few marks are allotted to employers rating of graduates of programme to be accredited, in Section III. During accreditation visits, some students randomly selected are interviewed to find out some things they have learned. It is expected that lecturers will relate each of the courses they teach to the relevant items among these learning outcomes. The common courses that all engineering students are expected to take are listed and the synopses of these courses are also given Section II In this section, the specific requirements in addition to the general requirements stated earlier in section I, are presented for the following engineering disciplines: Aerospace engineering Agricultural engineering Automotive engineering Biomedical engineering Ceramic engineering Chemical engineering Civil engineering Communication engineering Computer engineering Electrical and Electronics engineering Environmental engineering Food engineering Gas engineering Industrial and Production engineering Industrial engineering Marine engineering Mechanical engineering Mechatronics engineering Metallurgical and Materials engineering Mining engineering 6

7 Petrochemical engineering Petroleum engineering Production engineering Public Health engineering Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning engineering Structural engineering Systems engineering Textile and Polymer engineering Water Resources engineering Wood Products engineering Section III The accreditation score sheet is presented in this section with guidelines given for awarding marks for each item to be scored so that the scoring will be as objective as possible. The scored items are grouped under: Academic contents with a sub-total of 29; Staffing with a sub-total of 27; Physical facilities with a sub-total of 23; Library facilities with a sub-total of 10; Other items (funding of programme, Employers rating of graduates and overall management of the programme) have a sub-total of 11. Thus COREN accreditation criteria are focused largely on resource availability and adequacy. It was observed that this is not the case for some other national engineering accreditation bodies like ABET, EAB and EAC that are more process centered in their scoring criteria and some make assessments of exit level outcomes part of their accreditation criteria [8]. 2.2 Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering The Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering (PGDE) programme is available in various engineering disciplines to help Engineering Technologists who are holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) to bridge the gap between the academic requirements for registering as professional engineers and those for registering as Engineering Technologists. The Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering (PGDE) is a full-time, four-semester programme available in some universities running engineering programmes. COREN prepared minimum academic standards for Postgraduate diploma in engineering in various engineering disciplines 7

8 as an outcome of a workshop held at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, from May 16 17, 2005 [9]. The courses to be taken by PGDE students in a particular engineering discipline are drawn from the third to the fifth year courses offered in the regular undergraduate engineering programmes in that discipline. The courses that all the PGDE programmes have in common having a total of 17 credit units were listed and their synopses given after which the specific requirements in the following engineering disciplines for which the minimum academic standards were developed, are presented [9]: Agricultural Engineering; Chemical Engineering; Civil engineering; Computer Engineering; Electrical / Electronic engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Metallurgical / Materials engineering; Mining Engineering; and Water Resources and Environmental engineering. COREN accreditation teams normally handle PGDE programmes along with undergraduate programmes when they visit universities. 2.3 Accreditation Outcomes The preliminary accreditation granted to a new programme after the resource verification visit by COREN to an institution that NUC has given approval to start the programme is valid for two years after which the institution should be visited for full accreditation before the first set of student are graduated. At the end of accreditation visitation by COREN team, a programme gets: full accreditation if the total score is greater than or equal to 70%; interim accreditation if the total score is between 60 and 69%; and failed accreditation if the total score is less than 60% As stated in section I of COREN BMAS book [5]: Full accreditation is valid for 5 years; Interim accreditation is valid for only 2 years, after which the institution is due for another accreditation visit; Failed accreditation makes an institution loose the right to admit new students and COREN and NUC will interact to decide what to do with students on ground. 8

9 A rule in section I also states that where an institution on interim accreditation earns a score in the range of interim accreditation again in a re-accreditation visitation that follows after two years, the institution will be deemed to have failed the accreditation. 2.4 Post Accreditation Visit To cross check the facts on facilities and equipment presented during accreditation visit, to see the way engineering students are normally trained when the departments are not mobilized to be ready to receive visitors and to prevent complacency between scheduled accreditation visits to universities running accredited engineering programme. The first post accreditation visit was carried out at University of Agriculture, Makurdi on 3 rd March, 2015 by a team of four engineers made up of one Mechanical Engineer and one Civil Engineer from academia and one Mechanical Engineer and one Civil engineer from industry. The university had their four programmes in Agricultural, Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical and Electronics Engineering accredited with effect from October OVERVIEW OF MINIMUM ACADEMIC STANDARDS FOR THE TRAINING OF ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGISTS The four-semester Higher National Diploma (HND) which is usually preceded by a four-semester National Diploma and twelve months of industrial training is the academic requirements for registering as an Engineering Technologists with COREN. The ND and HND programmes in various engineering disciplines are run by polytechnics. The NBTE has BMAS for HND in following programmes [10]: Agricultural Engineering Technology Boat and Ship Building Engineering Technology Chemical Engineering Technology Civil Engineering Technology Computer Engineering Technology Electrical / Electronic Engineering Technology Forestry Technology Foundry Technology Geological Engineering Technology Industrial Maintenance Engineering Technology Industrial Safety and Environmental Engineering Technology Marine Engineering Technology Mechanical Engineering Technology Mechatronics 9

10 Metallurgy Mineral Processing Engineering Technology Mineral Resources Engineering Technology Mining Engineering Technology Petroleum Engineering Technology Petroleum and Gas Processing Engineering Technology Welding and Fabrication Engineering Technology Wood and Paper Technology An example of the BMAS for various disciplines is the one of Mechanical Engineering Technology with options in Manufacturing Engineering and Power and Plant Engineering [11]. In the learning outcomes listed for Mechanical Engineering emphasis was on acquisition of knowledge and skills to [11]: Interpret information in technical literature; Install disguise faults and maintain industrial plants and power generating units; Supervise technicians, craftsmen and artisans; Operate various machine tools; and Design tools and jigs for production of prototypes. The four components that the curriculum was divided into are: General studies / education, foundation courses (mathematics), Professional courses and Project. The professional courses and project which involves classroom, laboratory and workshop activities are expected to cover 60 70% of the contact hours for the students. The schedules of courses for the four semesters were presented for each of the two options after which the BMAS details of topics to be taught, teachers activities and resources needed for the fifteen weeks of lecture in a semester. The list of workshop, laboratories and equipment expected in them were presented next in the BMAS. From the summary of the content for the BMAS for Mechanical Engineering which has about 200 pages, it can be seen that the BMAS for the various engineering disciplines contain too much details and it appears they do not produce the flexibility to allow distinctive character of an engineering programme run in various institutions to emerge. Recently, COREN found the curriculum of some engineering-related vocational education degrees comparable to the curriculum of relevant HND programmes and it was approved that holders of such degrees be registered as Engineering Technologists. 10

11 4. OVERVIEW OF BMAS FOR TRAINING ENGINEERING TECHNICIANS The four-semester National Diploma (ND) is the academic requirements for registering as an Engineering Technician with COREN. Recently the Nigerian society of Engineering Technicians (NISET) has tried to come up with qualifications that are equivalent to ND so that holders of such qualifications can also register with COREN. The NBTE has BMAS for ND in the 23 programmes listed in section 3 of this paper. An example of such BMAS is the 253-page book prepared for ND in Mechanical Engineering [12]. Among the goals and objectives stated for the programme are production of Engineering Technicians who are able to [12]: Interprete and prepare engineering drawings; Machine, fabricate and assemble machine components; Install, operate and maintain plant and equipment; Write engineering report; and Use Information and Communication Technology facilities. In the BMAS it was stated that the professional courses component of the programme may account for 60 70% of contact hours with the students and each student is to maintain a personal log-book to record his/her day-to-day, weekly summary and semester summary of practical activities and the log book is to be checked and endorsed by lecturers assigned. The guidelines on Supervised Industrial Work Experience (SIWES) were given and type of final year project to be done by the student was discussed. The schedules of courses for the four semesters were presented and this was followed by details of topics to be taught in each course during the 15 weeks of lecture per semester. 5. OVERVIEW OF BMAS FOR THE TRAINING OF ENGINEERING CRAFTSMEN Engineering craftsmen are trained in Technical Colleges and Vocational Enterprise Institutions (VEI). It was reported that there are 159 Technical Colleges under the purviews of the NBTE [7]. The programmes in Technical Colleges are in the following Trade groups [10]: Automobile Trades o Agricultural Implements Mechanic o Auto Electric Works o Motor Vehicle Mechanics o Vehicle Body Building 11

12 Building and Woodwork Trades o Block laying o Brick laying and Concreting o Carpentry and Joinery o Draftsmanship Craft Practice Computer Trades o Computer Maintenance and GSM Repairs Electrical / Electronic Trades o Appliance Maintenance and Repairs o Electrical Installation and Maintenance o Instrument Mechanics o Radio, TV, and Electronics Work Mechanical Trades o Fabrication and Welding o Foundry Craft o Marine Engineering o Mechanical Engineering Craft Practice o Plumbing and Pipe Fitting o Refrigeration and Air conditioning Work The NBTE has prepared BMAS for National Vocational Certificate (NVC) for the training of craftsmen in Vocational Enterprise Institutions (VEIs) in the following engineering-related trades [13]: Automotive Mechatronics; Block Laying and Concreting; Carpentry and Joinery; Electrical Installation and Repair; Fabrication and Welding; Furniture Making and Upholstery; Motor Vehicle Mechanics; Plumbing and Pipe Fitting; Printing Technology; Radio, TV and GSM Servicing; Refrigeration and Air conditioning An example of such BMAS is the one for Fabrication and Welding [14]. For the NVC programme, candidates with at least Post basic Education Certificate (Post JSS) are taken and trained to be able to apply equipment, materials, techniques and safety practices in Fabrication and Welding 12

13 projects using metals. The NVC programme is a flexible modular programme which has three parts with each part having six months of training in the school and three months of supervised industrial work experience. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Overview of BMAS for engineering qualifications in Nigeria has been presented. There is need to periodically review and update the BMAS for each cadre in view of increasing knowledge and changing technologies in the world so that the criteria for granting accreditation to all cadres of engineering practitioners will be comparable to those used in other countries and this will enhance transnational mobility and employability of Nigerian engineers, technologists, technicians, and craftsmen. REFERENCES [1] J.W. Prados, G.D. Peterson and I.R. Lattuca, Quality Assurance of Engineering Education through Accreditation: The Impact of Engineering Criteria 2000 and its Global Influence, Journal of Engineering Education, pp (2003). [2] B.C. Sanyal and M. Martin, Quality Assurance and the Role of Accreditation: An Overview, Higher Education in the World, pp (2007). [3] R. Natarajan, Can Accreditation Process Serve as Change Agents in the Engineering Academy?, Section E Workshop Paper Presented at Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC) Conference, Peking University Beijing, China. (October 20 22, 2011). [4] International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) (J.H. Nagel, Editor), White Paper on the Criteria for the Accreditation of Biomedical Engineering Programmes in Europe, Biomedea Project, [5] Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) and Accreditation Scoring Criteria for Undergraduate Engineering Programmes in Nigerian Universities (2014). [6] Accessed on July 9, [7] Accessed on July 9, [8] J.A. Olorunmaiye and J.F. Opadiji, Survey of Criteria for Accreditation of Undergraduate Engineering Programmes in Other Countries, Proceedings of COREN Workshop on Review of Accreditation Scoring Criteria and Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards, held at Abuja, Nigeria, May 10 11, 2013, pp

14 [9] Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering, COREN Minimum Academic Standard Developed at COREN PGD Workshop, O.A.U., Ile-Ife, May 16 17, [10] [11] National Board for Technical Education, Kaduna, Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mechanical Engineering, Option in: 1 Manufacturing Engineering 2. Power and Plant Engineering, Curriculum and Course Specifications, August [12] National Board for Technical Education, Kaduna, Mechanical Engineering National Diploma (ND), Curriculum and Course Specification, August 2001 [13] [14] National Board for Technical Education, Kaduna, National Vocational Certificate in Fabrication and Welding, Curriculum and Module Specifications, (Downloaded from on 11/07/2016) 14