CIVIL ENGINEERING PROGRAM
1. PROGRAM OFFERING
- Awarding body/institution: International University HCMC
- Teaching institution: School of Civil Engineering and Management
- Accreditation:
- Institutional level: MOET (2016), AUN (2018)
- Program level: AUN, 2018
- Name of the final award: Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering
- Program Title: Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering
- Admission criteria of the program: Since the AY 2017-2018, the IU admission has been based on candidates’ performance obtained from either of the six schemes as below:
- (1) National High School Graduation Exam: based on the total score of three subjects that students have registered for their expected programs (applied since 2018).
- (2) Admission priority of VNU-HCM: excellent students from high schools designated by VNU-HCM, based on the average score of three subjects during the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades (applied since 2021).
- (3) Enrolment without entrance exam: the best students based on the regulation from MOET on selection and registration, or the best students at the high schools designated by VNU-HCM (applied since 2018).
- (4) Results from the Scholastic Aptitude Exam held by VNU-HCM or VNU (applied since 2019).
- (5) Admission for candidates with International Baccalaureate: based on GPAs of three years and certificates such as Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), American College Testing (ACT), International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge International Examinations A-Level (A-Level), ATAR – Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, ….etc. etc. (applied since 2022).
- (6) Academic Records of high schools (applied for twinning programs): based on the average score of three subjects during the 10th, 11th and 12th grades (applied since 2022).
2. TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACH
- The educational philosophy is well articulated and communicated to all stakeholders
CEs educational philosophy is student-centered. Therefore, all teaching and learning activities aim to transfer specific and in-depth knowledge to students, encouraging them to discover the impact of the acquired knowledge in a more general setting in engineering practice and motivating them to self-awareness and self-development of their knowledge. The crucial points underlying this educational philosophy are that students must learn to identify the problems arising in real-world engineering practices and find out the optimal solutions to a given problem. The educational philosophy has been well articulated to the stakeholders, particularly lectures and students. CEs and IUs lecturers have been trained in teaching methods to bring this educational philosophy into all their teaching activities.
- Teaching and learning activities are constructively aligned to the achievement of the expected learning outcomes
In order to ensure that students can entirely meet the program expected learning outcomes, each course is designed to meet specific learning outcomes. The CE program is student-centered, offering students opportunities to study at their own pace and interest. Lectures continuously stimulate and nurture their students’ active and reflective learning in many activities. Those teaching and learning activities are implemented efficiently with the help of sufficient facilities provided by the University. The number of students in each class is medium, with about 40-50 students for the lower division and 20-30 students for the upper division. Each classroom is well-equipped with computer, projector, and whiteboard. These facilities, together with the Blackboard system, support lecturers in providing course materials to students. Technical discussions between students and lecturers are not limited to class hours; students are encouraged to seek help from their instructors outside the classrooms during office hours, via emails, or by appointment.
- Teaching and learning activities enhance life-long learning
Students are not encouraged to learn by remembering but by learning how to learn, learning to know, learning to do, learning to live, learning to be, and learning for personal and professional development. With this in mind, the School organizes peer-review teaching activities to provide teachers with opportunities to learn with and from each other by working on real-world problems and sharing industrial experiences. Teachers are also encouraged to arrange a time to work off-hour for a consultant company to enhance their real-site experiences and build relationships with the industry. In addition, the School coordinates with the University to continuously help instructors improve their teaching and learning strategy by facilitating interaction between instructors and students and giving them feedback from students. Formal and closed discussions occur after the IUs Center of Education Quality Management CEQM delivers the results of the Course Evaluation Sheet filled out by students. In and out of class, students are always boosted to discover and discuss any topic related to the field. The courses focus on creativity, independence, teamwork, organization, and know-how. Action learning, one of the critical factors to enhance life-long learning, is also considered one of the centers of our teaching and learning activities.
3. STUDENT ASSESSMENT
- The student assessment is constructively aligned to the achievement of the expected learning outcomes
- The student assessments, including timelines, methods, regulations, weight distribution, rubrics, and grading, are explicit and communicated to students
- Student assessment includes assessment of student entrance, progress, and graduation thesis.
- Methods including assessment rubrics and marking schemes are used to ensure validity, reliability, and fairness of student’s assessment
- Feedback on student assessment is timely and helps to improve learning
- Students have ready access to the appeal procedure
Student Progress
The assessment of each course is made by exams (midterm and final exams), lab performance, quizzes, homework, and project presentation. The criteria for assessing student performance are explicitly and clearly stated in each course syllabus. These assessment criteria are informed to students at the beginning of each course. Examination schedules are set and informed to both instructors and students via EduSoftweb Students’ performance is recorded for each semester, including courses, accumulated credits, and Grade Point Average (GPA), and they can assess via their personal EduSoft account.
Students’ overall performance throughout the semester is formally monitored through course grades which are at least 50/100 in order to pass the course (student must obtain a minimum of C grade, see Table 7.1). As per the regulation of IU, the categories to calculate course grades are as follows:
- Midterm exam: 20% – 30%
- Final exam: 40% – 60%
- Others (quizzes, home assignments, projects, etc.): 20% – 30%
The final grade of a laboratory course includes the following:
- Laboratory assignment: 70% – 80%
- Laboratory final exam: 20% – 30%
Table 7.1: Grading criteria
| GPA
Classification |
100-Point Grading Scale | Point Grading Scale in letters |
| PASSING | ||
| Excellent | 90≤ GPA ≤100 | A+ |
| Very Good | 80≤ GPA <90 | A |
| Good | 70≤ GPA <80 | B+ |
| Fairly good | 65≤ GPA <70 | B |
| Fair | 55≤ GPA <60 | C+ |
| Average | 50≤ GPA <55 | C |
| NO PASSING | ||
| Weak | 30≤ GPA <50 | D+ |
| Rather weak | 10≤ GPA <30 | D |
| Too weak | GPA <10 | F |
Graduation assessment
Students who have completed 120 credits out of 152 credits for the whole program are permitted to carry out the graduation thesis. The graduation thesis requires the design of real-world engineering problems, including buildings, bridges, and hydraulic structures. The thesis report focused on the design calculation and drawings must be implemented within 15 weeks. During this period, students must arrange a weekly meeting with their supervisors to discuss and correct their design. When the thesis report is finished, it must be submitted to the School for reviewing and assessing by a reviewer assigned by the Head of the School. Students who passed the assessment by the reviewer will be qualified for thesis defense. In addition, a Graduation Thesis Defense Committee assigned by the Rector of IU is responsible for assessing the graduation thesis. Each student must present their design work and answer the questions from each committee member within 30 minutes of the defense date. Students who pass the graduation thesis defense will gain 10 credits for graduation approval.
4. PROGRAM STRUCTURE
The curriculum is logically structured with general courses, fundamental courses, specialized courses, including elective courses, and a graduation thesis that balances specific and general courses, as shown in Figure 8.1. Additionally, Table 8.1 compares the CE curriculum with prestigious universities.
Table 8.1. Comparison of the percentage of each group between prestigious universities
| Comparison among the Universities | ||||||||||||||||
| IU | HCMC Uni. of Technology | Uni. of Texas, Austin | Rutgers Uni. | Uni. of Pittsburgh | ||||||||||||
| Cr. | % | No. of Co. | Cr. | % | No. of Co. | Cr. | % | No. of Co. | Cr. | % | No. of Co. | Cr. | % | No. of Co. | ||
| 1 | General knowledge | 58 | 39.9 | 21 | 53 | 35 | 20 | 62 | 49 | 19 | 67 | 52 | 23 | 60 | 47,0 | 18 |
| 2 | Core Major Requirement | 38 | 20.9 | 18 | 33 | 22 | 20 | 26 | 21 | 9 | 28 | 22 | 12 | 32 | 25,0 | 10 |
| 3 | Specialization Requirement | 31 | 19.6 | 15 | 37 | 25 | 20 | 28 | 22 | 9 | 23 | 18 | 9 | 12 | 9,4 | 4 |
| 4 | Professional Practice And Research | 16 | 10.1 | 3 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 2,3 | 1 | |||||||
| 5 | CE Electives | 9 | 5.7 | 3 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 21 | 16,3 | 7 |
| 6 | IU Electives | 6 | 3.8 | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 158 | 100 | 62 | 151 | 100 | 52 | 125 | 100 | 40 | 128 | 100 | 47 | 128 | 100 | 40 | |
The courses in the curriculum are arranged in sequence of increasing difficulty from the first to seventh semesters, and the graduation thesis in the last semester. Advanced courses require prerequisite fundamental courses. Students can study an advanced course only when they pass its prerequisite courses.
Additionally, there are integrated courses in the curriculum. These courses are usually projected ones, which combine knowledge from several relevant courses. Soft skills are also required to complete these. The most important integrated course is the graduation thesis. The graduation thesis requires students to select appropriate solutions and design a specific project, such as a tall building, bridge, dam, or river embankment. For that, the students must use and integrate knowledge and skills accumulated from the courses and projects over the previous semesters. Elective courses and projects make the curriculum structure flexible enough to allow students to pursue an area of specialization and incorporate more recent changes and developments in civil engineering. Especially various topics of the graduation thesis are practical opportunities for students to study and apply state-of-the-art technology in design and construction to their projects. Therefore, the educational program has also been changed structurally to match the thesis content or contemporary construction technologies.
Annually, the CE curriculum is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is up-to-date just after CE receives stakeholders’ feedback who need graduates with good soft skills such as self-studying, writing, drawing, presentation, and communication ability in English.
