Program Assessment Team Visit

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Program Assessment Team Visit
Exit Meeting
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Mechanical Engineering Program
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AT Members for Mechanical Engineering

• Dr. Ahmet S. Yigit
• Kuwait University
• Dr. Ramazan Kahraman
• Chemical Eng. Dept, KFUPM
• Dr. Syed M. Zubair
• Mech. Eng., KFUPM
• Dr. Necar Merah
• Mech. Eng., KFUPM
• Program Team Representative

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Program Overall Assessment

• Well established program
• Appears to be fulfilling its mission
• Administration is effective and supportive of
  the goals
• Excellent collegial environment
• Excellent preparation

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Program Strengths

• Faculty
• Outstanding credentials
• Dedicated and hard working
• Cover all the required areas of ME
• Students
• Some of the brightest in the Kingdom
• Articulate with good command of English
• Confident about their abilities and job prospects
• Proud to be a KFUPM student, and pleased with
  their education

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Program Strengths

• Facilities
• State of the art laboratories
• Excellent library and IT facilities
• Modern classrooms
• Adequate funding
• To maintain and upgrade facilities
• For research
• For faculty development

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Program Areas for Improvement

• Objectives and outcomes
• Improve the process of evaluating program
  educational objectives and involve all
  constituents
• Need to develop and implement a detailed
  assessment plan for the program outcomes
  surveys are not sufficient

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Program Areas for Improvement

• Curriculum and instruction
• Quality of major design experience can be
  improved
• A cornerstone design course may be useful
• Need to provide awareness of professional and
  ethical responsibilities
• Communication and teamwork skills need some more
  emphasis
• Educational value of some Arabic courses may be
  enhanced
• Need more flexible and broad general education
  component (e.g., management, leadership,
  international relations, history etc)
• Need more real world applications in coursework

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Program Areas for Improvement

• Laboratories and facilities
• Need to maintain quality technical support staff
  (technicians and lab engineers)
• Need additional space for new labs and for
  expansion of existing ones
• Need study space for students (learning center)
• Student support and advising
• Work on a two-year plan for elective course
  offerings

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Program Areas for Improvement

• Process control
• Processing time for promotion cases vary greatly-
  consider requiring periodic reports on the
  progress of promotion cases
• No written feedback is provided to faculty on
  their evaluation once the process is complete
• Faculty
• Faculty salaries and fringe benefits (health
  care) are not satisfactory
• Some faculty view committee work as excessive
• No consulting is allowed for expatriate faculty

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Summary

• The programs offered by ME department are
  very good, but they can be made even better.

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Thank You