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Status of Bangladesh in educating future civil engineers and practitioners on sustainable infrastructure practices

Prof. (Engr.) M. Ali Ashraf, FIEB, FBIP, PEng.

Department of Civil Engineering

Southern University Bangladesh

739/A, Mehedibag Road, Chittagong, Bangladesh

CECAR 8, 16 April 2019, Tokyo, Japan

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Location of Bangladesh in the Indian Sub-Continent

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Bangladesh: Vital Statistics

Area= 147,570 sq.km
Population(2018 Estimate)=

163.65 million

GDP (2019 estimate)=

US $ 313.509 billion

Per capita GDP (2019 estimate)=US $ 1882/-
Life Expectancy = 72 yrs.
Literacy (7+ years)=72.3%
Population Density=1103 person per sq.km
Toilet facilities=76.8%

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Bangladesh: Vital Statistics

Source of light (electricity)=85.5%
Mortality=5.1 per 1000 population
Maternal Mortality Rate= 1.72 per 1000 live birth
M/F Sex Ratio= 100.2
Population growth rate= 1.34
Contraceptive use= 62.5%

(Ref: BBS sample survey 2017 published in June 2018)

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Presentation format

Introduction
Quality Assurance in Tertiary Level Education
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Bangladesh’s Response
MDG to SDG implementation with reference to sustainable infrastructure practices
SDG: Challenges for Bangladesh
Concluding Remark

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Introduction

Higher education in Bangladesh has experienced a phenomenal growth in the recent years.
Number of students in the tertiary level education has nearly doubled.
Credit goes to the increase in private universities after the enactment of PUA in 1992. This act was later replaced by PUA 2010.
No. of universities=44 public and 104 private universities in Bangladesh.
Number of students= 3.2 million to 4 million
Output of graduates= Around 0.7 million to one million per year.

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Introduction (continued)

University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) is responsible for mentoring and ensuring quality of education.
Most of these universities offer engineering programs leading to the degree of B.Sc.in Engineering
A few of these universities offering engineering programs, offer courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering

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Quality Assurance in Tertiary Level Education

Quality assurance mechanism in public and private universities are not up to the mark because of the following reason:

(1)inadequate enabling environment for improving the quality of education and research;

(2) weak governance and accountability;

(3) poor planning and monitoring capacities; and

(4) insufficient funding

(Ref: UGC’s Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2006-2026 and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2010)

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Recommendation of the UGC Strategic Plan 2006 to 2026

Bangladesh Government Initiative

Recommendation of the UGC Strategic Plan

Independent Accreditation Council for the universities in Bangladesh.

Action

Following this recommendation, the Ministry of Education (MOE) with the financial support from the World Bank, launched the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) in 2009

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UGC Action (continued)

Twenty five self assessment sub-projects in twenty five programs of fifteen universities were identified initially for the HEQE program.
These sub-projects were highly successful
Encouraged by the success of the aforementioned sub projects, the Ministry of Education / UGC decided to establish Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) in all private and public universities.

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UGC Action (continued)

IQAC was given the responsibility for
Systematic review of the study programs of all universities,
ensuring outcome based education,
quality teaching-learning, research, creation and generation of knowledge and
raising of support services standards to an acceptable level.

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Outcome of the UGC quality Assurance Exercise

Several public and private universities completed Self Assessment and prepared Self Assessment Report (SAR).
Some of them have already completed their Improvement Plan after the visit by the Peer Review Team and are now implementing their improvement plans.
Currently, there are several ongoing Self Assessment Programs in different universities. Some of them are already producing their Improvement Plans.

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UGC developed Self Assessment Manual: (revised and further improved in May 2016)

Higher Education Quality Enhancement
Chapter 1: Self Assessment in Practice
Chapter 2: Self Assessment Criteria and Standards
Chapter 3: Self Assessment Process
Chapter 4: Self Assessment Report (SAR) & External Peer Review (EPR)
Chapter 5: Post SAR & EPR Improvement Plan.

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Aims & Objectives of this quality enhancement exercise by UGC

Aim: Produce globally competitive graduates to meet the requirement of the stakeholders in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude and performance.

These graduates are expected to have:

core knowledge of the subjects they have studied;
the ability to solve complex problem; and
the ability and desire to become a life-long learner.

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Initiative by the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB)

The Institution of Engineers Bangladesh, established in 1948, is an independent organization registered with the Joint Stock companies of Bangladesh.

IEB is recognized by the Government of Bangladesh as the representative body of all qualified graduate engineers in Bangladesh.

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Requirements �for a membership of IEB

To become a member of IEB and provide professional services in Bangladesh
an individual must hold a degree in any discipline of engineering recognized by IEB.
Civil Engineers with a degree of B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from a recognized university may apply for the membership of IEB after fulfilling all the requirements of membership.

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Activities of the Institution of Engineers Bangladesh (IEB)

IEB monitors (1) the growth and quality of engineering education, (2) quality of professional engineering practices.

For dissemination of knowledge and sharing of professional experiences,

IEB regularly organizes convention, conferences and paper meets.
For continuing professional development (CPD) of the practicing engineers, IEB conducts training workshops and seminars regularly

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Constituent bodies of IEB

IEB has established a ‘Engineering Staff College’ in Munshigonj with an outer campus in Dhaka for

1. imparting professional and need-based continuing education.
2. training practicing engineers and fresh engineers in frontier areas of engineering, management and technology.

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Constituent bodies of IEB (continued)

IEB has established

Board of Accreditation for Engineering & Technical Education (BAETE)

Bangladesh Professional Engineers Registration Board (BPERB)

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Board of Accreditation for Engineering & Technical Education

BAETE conducts the accreditation process to ensure quality engineering education (universities and institutions)

BAETE works as an independent and autonomous body within IEB.
It is financially self supporting
The Chairman of the Board and other Board members are nominated by IEB from eminent engineers with a track record of practicing high ethical standards.

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Board of Accreditation for Engineering & Technical Education�(continued)

BAETE has several sectoral committees, such as

Civil Engineering,
Electrical Engineering,
Computer Science & Engineering, etc.

Each sectoral committee is comprised of three members;

one of them serves as the Chair, usually for a period of three years.

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BAETE (continued)

The BAETE has identified the following as specific objectives of accreditation:
To ensure engineering graduates acquire attributes required to meet national and international standards;
To assist the stakeholders in identifying engineering education programs that satisfies national and international standards;
To provide a mechanism for continuous improvement of existing engineering programs through evaluation and feedbacks.

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BAETE (continued)

An academic program must fulfill the following requirements to be considered for accreditation by BAETE:

1. An engineering degree approved by the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) or any other appropriate government body.

2. A duration of four years after twelve years of schooling

3. At least one cohort has graduated from the program.

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BAETE (continued)

4. Follows outcome based education

5. Requires a minimum of 130 total semester credit hours of course and laboratory works.

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BAETE (continued)

During the Accreditation Visit, BAETE team is generally expected to assess the following:

1.Objectives and outcomes of the education provided;

2.Quality assurance processes including internal reviews;

3.Assessment of student learning outcomes;

4.Entry standards for admission and student selection

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BAETE (continued)

Accreditation visit (continued)

5.Student activities and work;

6.Faculty members’ motivation and enthusiasm;

7.Faculty members qualifications and activities;

8.Facilities;

9.Industry Participation

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For membership, IEB accepts

The Civil Engineering degree of five oldest engineering universities in Bangladesh.
As of September 2018, Civil Engineering programs in seven public and six private universities were included in the list. That means graduates from these 13 universities only can become member of IEB.
Both public and private universities in Bangladesh are now showing great interest in applying for BAETE,IEB Accreditation currently there are a good number of applications from the universities waiting for Accreditation visit.

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Washington Accord Membership

Bangladesh is a provisional member of Washington Accord.
As a part of the requirement for becoming a full member of Washington Accord,

Bangladesh is now being mentored by Er. Professor Dr. Kai Sang Lock, Past Chairman, Engineering Accreditation Board, IES and Professor, Singapore Institute of Technology.

BAETE is also a full member of the Network of Accreditation Bodies for Engineering Education in Asia (NABEEA)

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Bangladesh Professional Engineers Registration Board (BPERB)

Following the IEB constitution, the council of IEB voted to form the BPERB in January 2001 for the assessment of engineers wishing to become a professional engineer.
BPERB works as an independent and autonomous body within IEB. It has its own Board of Executives independent of IEB. The Chairman of the Board and other Board members are nominated by IEB. Eminent engineers practicing high ethical standards are generally made member of this board.

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BPERB Activities

BPERB has established the standards that are required to be achieved by an engineer. It has developed a procedure for assessing professional engineers with the technical and financial assistance by the British government (DFID, UK).

BPERB maintains a register of engineers.
All professional engineers registered with BPERB are required to maintain a log book that records the continuous professional development (CPD) activities.

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BPERB Activities (continued)

For renewal of professional engineer (PEng.) registration, an engineer will have to prove that he/she had completed a minimum CPD of five days in the previous year.

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