Background:

There are thousands of students who complete their 3-year diploma of associate engineer (DAE) in Civil, Electrical, Electronics, and Mechanical technologies from various polytechnic colleges and institutes across Pakistan. Most of them are unable to pursue their higher education in engineering universities because PEC allocates only 2% of seats to diploma holders at the time of admission in BS (Engineering) degrees. In the UCP, this number is 7. Many of these highly capable diploma holders apply for higher students in those institutions and universities which offer 4-year B. Tech, B. Tech (Hon), or BS (Tech) degrees in their specialization with hodgepodge curricula.
Similarly, there are large number of students with F.Sc (pre-eng.) / ICS who cannot afford high fee if they desire to take admission in Engineering discipline the engineering
As the UCP provides state-of-art technical education to such bright students in their BS (Engineering Technology) degree programs.

Introduction:

Engineers, technologists and technicians may work on the same project but they work in different capacities. Technologists interpret the draft and designs of engineers and act as a go-between between the engineers and the technicians i.e. the work crew. The following chart depicts the relationship between engineers and technologists from employability viewpoint (http://etic.ump.edu.my/files/slidekeynote2/etic-2015_slidekeynote_profbad.pdf), page 29.
The role of technologists is crucial; however, technology training and education has been remained unregulated till 2015 with numerous degree nomenclatures and syllabi.

HEC Recognized Degree

In 2015, HEC established National Technology Council (NTC) keeping in view the dire need of a standardized degree. NTC (http://www.ntc-hec.org.pk/) is a regulatory body for ensuring high quality teaching and training of technologists (through curricula), and carrying out accreditation of all 4-year programs in engineering technologies for students who desire higher education in technology from HEC / NTC recognized institution.
A 4-year degree, entitled, BS in engineering technology provides the bright students an opportunity to realize their dream as Technologists by advancing their higher education in technical fields. It is an internationally recognized degree, which is offered in all advanced countries like USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Malaysia, and many more. The NTC is applying for the membership of Sydney Accord (http://www.ieagreements.org/accords/sydney/). Sydney accord is global accreditation for engineering technologists of the signatory countries, whereas, Washington Accord is for global accreditation for engineers.

BS (Engineering Technology) Curriculam:

In order to standardize 4-year degree in engineering. technologies, NTC has given 4-year curricula for BS (Engineering Technology) in Civil, Electrical and Mechanical.  The following distinct features of the curricula are stated here for information;

  1. All programs have three years (6 semesters) of formal classroom education.
  2. In both 7th and 8th semesters (fourth year), a student registers 15 credit hours of “Supervised Industrial Training (15 credit hours)” and three credit hours of Project.
  3. In first three years, more emphasis has been put on lab work than theory classes. For example, during any semester of BS (Engineering), a student takes 15-16 credit hours of theory, and 2-3 credit hours of lab courses. However, in BS (Engineering Technology), a student takes 10-11 credit hours of theory and 5-7 credit hours of lab courses.
  4. In engineering programs, 1-credit lab means 3 hours of supervised lab work, whereas, in engineering technology curriculum, it is two hours of lab work.
  5. The program shall be structured based on Outcome Based Education (OBE) system.