Undergraduate Trisemester?!

TRI-SEMESTER OVERVIEW

Bismillahirahmanirahim.

Assalamualaikum wbt,

Things have been busy in UTP these past few weeks and will be more hectic in the weeks to come. It seems that time passes by very quick as we can see the end of the semester just around the corner. If now we are in the middle of the SRCUTP General Election 2010/2011, other students bodies, clubs and society in UTP are also preparing for their Annual General Meeting (AGM) and small number of them led the herd in advance by already successfully organizing their AGM. Focusing on this week we can see the rise of the curtain for Green Concert organized by the committee of National Green Convention and not forgetting Treasure Hunt and Chess Tournament organized by Convofair 2010 committee members. In addition to that, there is also Career Placement Week organized for final year student. Leaving things behind, let’s time travel ahead to the future of UTP. Are we aware of the change that will happen to UTP next semester? Some of the students may have a glimpse of it but most students who are aware of it disagree with the change. What I am talking about right now, is about the tri-semester that will be implemented next semester. Are you aware of it?

Why is it implemented?

After researching around I got a handful of information. Basically, the management are implementing the tri-semester system with a definite purpose. The need to introduce this system is to confirm to the Engineering Accreditation Council’s (EAC) requirement of having 8 semesters of full teaching for all engineering programs. This means, the system right now which is 7 semesters of full teaching and 1 semester of internship; industrial Internship cannot be counted as one of the full teaching semesters, does not comply with EAC. Thus, drastic changes made to have 8 semesters next semester in UTP is most likely to fulfill the requirement by the EAC before the next accreditation visit to UTP. This accreditation is important as no accreditation means that our degrees are useless.

An assumed overview of the tri-semester system

I can assume that the foundation tri-semester system is used as the groundwork for the undergraduate tri-semester system whereby there will be three semester per year. Possibly, there will be 2 full teaching semester and 1 semester holiday break summing up to 8 full teaching semesters after 4 years of study. There are also rumours that the internship period will be shorten but to what extent is beyond my knowledge. What I can expect is total reconstruction towards the current system. Overall, we can expect the management to announce the details of the change shortly.

As a whole, I foresee that the change is inevitable and the management is not at fault. However, what I am concern is about the problem that may arise from implementation of the new system. Currently, the management is working hard to resolve these problems. Therefore, I also invite all of you including myself to also think about this matter. Put ourselves in their shoes before criticizing or disagreeing on this issue.  Let’s open up our mind and think for the future of UTP.