Entrepreneurship Education in an Engineering Curriculum

Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education) (MEB 2015-2025) requires academic programs in institutions of higher learning (IHL) to have entrepreneurship education in order to produce graduates who have acquired entrepreneurial skills. The Ministry of Education wants all IHL to produce graduates who create jobs rather than those who are just looking for jobs. Students should even be encouraged to start their own enterprises before they graduate. Universiti Tenaga Nasional already has Program Objectives (PO) and Program Educational Objectives (PEO) for bachelor of engineering degree programs that support MEB 2015-2025. The PO among others states that graduates should be able to demonstrate entrepreneurship skills upon graduation and the PEO among others similarly states that graduates should establish their own enterprises within 5 years after graduation. This paper presents the review and revision of the Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours) program (BCE (Hons)) to further improve its entrepreneurship education within current requirements from the relevant authorities and constraints from prospective students. A new course for entrepreneurship education, a new complementary UNITEN Entrepreneurship Program for Engineering Students, and a revised curriculum for BCE (Hons) program was therefore proposed. The revised curriculum has the same total of 127 credit hours in order to avoid any increase in tuition fees while still satisfying the requirements and accreditation from the relevant authorities for an engineering degree program.