Improvement in the Implementation of Undergraduate Research Project

In all engineering programs offered in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, each student has to go through a research project in his final year study. The research project is completed individually and is spread into two semesters in the final year as Research Project I in the first semester and Research Project II for the second semester of an academic session. In FKAB, each department has its own way to implement the research project. For the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, FKAB, starting Semester I 2011/2012, the department has come out with an academic planner for the students and the lecturers (as supervisors to students) to follow. The planner has included the definite datelines for each activity under the implementation of the research project. Previously, the department faced problems of students not completing their research project according to the allocated time frame. By introducing definite datelines as the semester starts to each of the activity under research project such as presentation research proposal, submission draft thesis to supervisors and final thesis to the department office, viva and submission of final marks by lecturers has improved the turnover of students completing the thesis within the time frame. For the previous semester, Semester II 2011/2012, only 3 out of 60 students failed to complete their research project on time. 95% of the JKKP students had successfully completed their research project on time, compared to only 60% of successful rate to complete their thesis on time before the introduction of the improved implementation.