Evaluation of Laboratory Facilities for Engineering Technology Programs in Malaysian Technical Universities

Abstract

Malaysia is consolidating and strengthening Engineering Technology (ET) programs to produce skilled human resources to spearhead economic growth and achieve the status of a developed nation by 2020. ET programs need to increase the students' intake to fulfil the industry requirements for technical graduates. The Malaysian Technical University Network (MTUN) institutions and UniKL are among the higher education institutions in Malaysia that offer undergraduate ET programs to produce work-ready graduates. A key component of Engineering Technology curriculum is laboratory facilities. This article evaluated the laboratory facilities at MTUN institutions. We used mainly qualitative data methodology, comprising of focus group interviews, observations and document analysis. We also adopted the quantitative method using survey questionnaires to investigate students' satisfaction on the laboratory facilities related to the practice-oriented learning at the institutions. The results indicate that the laboratory facilities provided by the selected MTUN institutions are adequate for the current number of students.

Public Perception of Engineering Technology: A Literature Review

“…Research that follows these graduates into the rest of their careers has also been performed [4]; however, such studies again tend to focus specifically on one specific demographic, such as one that follows a certain cohort of African American engineering technology graduates [5]. There is also some existing research on engineering technology graduates from specific countries, such as Malaysia [6]; however, most of these focus on employability [7] and the general availability of resources to these graduates within their industry (such as the state of their labs) rather than being directly about perception. In general, perception is discussed as a factor that affects the topic being researched, rather than being the subject of any studies itself, which often leads to most material centering on the perspectives of employers rather than the general public; this emphasis continues even outside those countries [8] [9].…”