THE UBD-APEN JAIF Multiversity Seminar 2016 was held yesterday at the Institute of Leadership, Innovation and Advancement (ILIA), Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD).
According to a press release, the seminar themed ‘To Develop an Effective Curriculum For Engineering Education’ was one of the initiatives agreed upon in the memorandum of Understanding inked on March 30 between the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology (AIIT), Japan and UBD, which formalised collaborations under the Asia Professional Education Network – Japan Asean Integration Fund (APEN-JAIF) projects.
The main scope of the multiversity project is to carry out comparative studies of professional education systems at the higher education institutions.
Along with UBD, other participating countries and universities in the APEN-JAIF projects include the Institute of Technology Cambodia (Cambodia), the Institute of Technology Bandung (Indonesia), the National University of Laos (Laos), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (Malaysia), Yangon Technological University (Myanmar), De La Salle University (Philippines), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Vietnam National University (Vietnam).
In his welcoming remarks, Professor Chandratilak De Silva Liyanage, Dean of the Faculty of Integrated Technologies (FIT), UBD, said, “Today, it has been over three years since UBD and APEN (Asia Professional Education Network) signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which solidified our collaboration. Significant achievements have been made since then. Some of the projects include Project-Based Learning (PBL) through teleconferencing between Japan, Brunei and New Zealand, student and staff mobility and Innovation project competitions.
“This year, UBD has spearheaded a new and exciting collaboration between Asean member countries and Japan through APEN under the support of JAIF.
“The MoU for APEN-JAIF was signed in March 2016 and it enabled us to broaden our scope to enhance the networking between Asean member countries under two projects titled: Credibility Index for Small and Medium Enterprises (CIS) and the comparative studies of professional education systems in the higher education institutions of Asean member countries.”
Detailing the multi-fold benefits of the project, he said that a successfully-mapped education system will provide the respective universities and institutions with a benchmark tool for curriculum development and the data obtained could be published as research.
Group photo of the attendees of the seminar.
“At UBD, we have initiated a major transformation of our education system in 2008. The curriculum is broad-based and multi-disciplinary.
“The curriculum underscores entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation and environmental awareness in all our students. We call it the Generation Next curriculum. We prioritise the importance of enterprise and are continually reviewing the curriculum to suit the needs of stakeholders. In fact, this kind of broad-based educational model is the preferred type of professional education system proposed under the Multiversity project map.
“In addition, we at the Faculty of Integrated Technologies, in consultation with Stevens Institute of Technology in the USA, have pioneered in Brunei Darussalam, a unique ‘Design Spine’ curriculum in the Systems Engineering programme which involves the teaching of engineering design modules. This enables our students to be better prepared and exposed to real-life engineering design problems as well as hands-on experiential learning.
“UBD always ensures its existence will be relevant through mutual collaborations and partnerships with other universities and institutions. We will fully take advantage of these opportunities to the best of our abilities by collaborating with Asean and Japan. This Multiversity project helps us to shape our engineering curriculum to align with the needs of the country and the region,” Professor Chandratilak De Silva Liyanage said.
Also present at the seminar was Dr Chin Wei Keh, Director of the Institute of Brunei Technical Education (IBTE), Dr Seiichi Kawata, President of AIIT, APEN members, representatives from participating universities and institutions and FIT faculty members.
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