No problem for Malaysia to increase engineers by 2020 Read more: No problem for Malaysia to increase engineers by 2020
Written by New Straits Times Thursday, 30 June 2011 00:00
SERI KEMBANGAN: Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said Malaysia would have no problem attaining its vision of having an engineer for every hundred people by 2020.
Khaled said Malaysia was well on its way to meet this target that is required to reach developed nation status, as the ratio had already been narrowed to 1:192 now.
He said presently there were 15 public institutions of higher learning (IPTA) and 16 private institutions of higher learning (IPTS) offering a total of 378 engineering programmes.
Speaking at the opening of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Engineering and Technology Complex building here yesterday, Khaled said: “As of this year, a total of 77,830 engineering undergraduates enrolled at these institutions to add to the 140,000 existing engineers in the country.
“It is therefore estimated that the country will have between 275,000 and 300,000 engineers by 2020.”
Khaled said besides producing sufficient engineers to meet the country’s needs, his ministry was also striving to attract more foreign students to pursue engineering courses in Malaysia.
He said in this respect, his ministry had placed engineering together with medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, health science and hospitality and tourism under its Discipline Based Rating System (D-Satera) with focus on quality learning and teaching.
He said the D-Satera, to be implemented beginning of next year with the results out by middle of the year, will improve the competitive level among local universities.
Khaled earlier launched three books underlining UPM’s implementation of the new Student-Centred Learning (SCL) method for its students.
In referring to the books Khaled said: “The book launch marks a paradigm shift in teaching and learning practices at institutes of higher learning from that of the traditional teacher-centred teaching to SCL.
“The SCL is basically a teaching strategy where students are made to take centre stage and play a direct role in all their learning activities.”
Khaled said using SCL more time was allocated for students to explore their problem solving skills with the lecturer merely playing the role of a facilitator.
He noted that this was the first time in the world that SCL, the case study method pioneered by the Harvard University for learning management skills in business schools, had been used in the teaching of an engineering programme.
Meanwhile when asked to comment on rumours that Malaysian students in foreign countries would hold rallies there in conjunction with the planned Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur on July 9, Khaled said: “We will not be monitoring students who involve themselves in holding illegal rallies in foreign countries.
“If they take part in such rallies they have to face the laws of the respective countries"
