What is Engineering Accreditation?
A voluntary process involves an association of colleges to encourage high standards of education. Offer its students on a satisfactory level of the educational opportunities implied in its objectives and are likely to continue to do so. - WASC, Handbook of Accreditation 2001
Accreditation Body: IEET
Key Features
- Voluntary in nature.
- Encourages departments to establish unique characteristics.
- Outcomes-based, focusing on graduate results.
- Verifies the achievement of educational objectives, without ranking or comparisons.
- Emphasizes self-review and continuous improvement.
- Strengthens connections between departments, alumni, and industries.
- Accreditation signifies that graduates possess the basic professional engineering capabilities recognized by member countries.
Accreditation Standards
The accreditation standards are outcome-based, assessing students' performance as evidence of teaching effectiveness. Continuous improvement is the ultimate goal of the accreditation process.
Educational Objectives
- To cultivate polymer science and technology professionals with expertise, research spirit, engineering ethics, and a global perspective.
- To meet national demands for infrastructure and technological development while promoting environmental protection and sustainable development.
- Based on these objectives, ten core competencies are defined for graduates.
Curriculum Design to Achieve Educational Objectives
The curriculum emphasizes fostering research and development (R&D) skills while also integrating professional knowledge, engineering ethics, and a global perspective. Graduate courses, including thesis research and dissertation work, are designed to develop students' research capabilities. Through tackling specific problems in specialized fields, students learn to identify, analyze, explore, and solve issues, often requiring interdisciplinary knowledge integration.
To deepen professional knowledge, a series of polymer-related courses is offered, such as Advanced Polymer Chemistry, Functional Polymers, Polymer Synthesis, Polymer Physics, Solid-State Polymer Physics, Polymer Physical Chemistry, Polymer Analysis, Polymer Morphology, and Principles and Applications of Polymer Processing. Students must complete sufficient polymer-related coursework to graduate, ensuring a strong foundation in professional knowledge.
Core and elective courses are taught by full-time and jointly appointed faculty. NTU's comprehensive academic structure, with 10 colleges, allows for extensive interdisciplinary collaboration. For instance, elective courses are co-hosted with departments such as Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Applied Mechanics, Biomedical Engineering, and Chemistry, enriching the curriculum's scope.
Engineering Ethics
While there are no dedicated courses on engineering ethics, students develop these values through thesis research and project work, gaining skills in communication, collaboration, management, and academic integrity. Additionally, a required seminar course exposes students to lectures by professionals, broadening their perspectives and teaching them how to address and resolve real-world issues while learning professional presentation skills.
Global Perspective
The institute encourages students to attend international conferences and interact with visiting scholars to enhance their global experience.
Student Learning and Affairs
Graduate admissions, course registration, leave of absence, withdrawal, and graduation are all managed according to NTU's academic regulations. Beyond these, the institute has specific rules regarding coursework, advisor selection, thesis, and oral defense. Doctoral students are also subject to qualifying examinations. These guidelines are compiled into detailed notices for master's and doctoral students, available on the institute’s website, with support staff ensuring smooth communication. Faculty advisors also provide individual mentoring.
Since admitting students in the 2002 academic year, the institute has maintained a low withdrawal and leave-of-absence rate, typically due to personal reasons or employment opportunities.
Each course provides a syllabus detailing progress, requirements, and grading methods. Changes to course planning are reviewed by the curriculum committee, while admissions policies are overseen by the admissions committee, subject to approval by the institute council. Decision-making processes are transparent, democratic, and institutionalized.
Graduate students actively participate in academic activities such as international conferences and short-term overseas research. For international exchange students, local students are encouraged to engage in cultural and academic exchanges, enriching both their academic and personal experiences.