Program Specification

PROGRAM OFFERING

1. Awarding body/institution: International University HCMC
2. Teaching institution: School of Civil Engineering and Management
3. Accreditation: ASIIN
4. Program Title: Bachelor of Engineering in Construction Management
5. Admission criteria of the program:
   • Admission via the National High School Achievement Exam
   • Admission based on Academic Records of the Candidates in the 10th, 11th, and 12th Grades of Designated High Schools
   • Admission for candidates with national and international awards
   • Admission via Scholastic Aptitude Exam held by IU
   • Admission via Scholastic Aptitude Exam held by VNU

TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACH

1. The educational philosophy is well articulated and communicated to all stakeholders

CM’s 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. CM’s and IU’s lecturers have been trained in teaching methods to bring this educational philosophy into all their teaching activities. During the orientation week and at the beginning of the courses, students are introduced to learning approaches based on this educational philosophy. Before technical concepts, instructors present syllabi and discuss the course’s contents, textbooks, learning outcomes, grading scheme, and links to previous courses to prepare students with starting knowledge. Their impacts in both academic and practical situations motivate students to study new courses.

Students are convinced to learn actively, think independently, and work collaboratively in a group. In and out of the classroom, questions and discussions are always encouraged. Apart from theoretical studying, all students must acquire hand-on experience in the laboratory and work site.    

2. 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 CM 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:

• Lecturers are intertwined by questions and answers to encourage class and group discussion.
• Course assignments, including homework, quizzes, midterm exams, final exams, written reports, and oral presentations, are required in many courses.
• Seminars are also organized by the School to help students update their professional knowledge. Seminars are delivered by speakers from industry or experts in the field of civil engineering.
• Several courses have term projects and are accompanied by laboratory work. The School of Civil Engineering and Management has four laboratories with sufficiently equipped instruments for both study and research. Students can spend as much time as needed in the laboratories for self-study.
• Professional practice, internship, capstone project, and graduation thesis are required for all students. The School arranges several field trips, ensuring students are familiar with the real-world construction process. With a good connection with the industry, the School brings all third-year students to a company for the summer internship. During the internship, students are well-trained by experienced engineers, so their work knowledge and practical skills are improved significantly.
• IU has the vision to become one of the leading research-oriented universities. To encourage students to do research, it offers students research grants for conducting their research projects under the supervision of a faculty in the School.
• Students learn from their lecturers and higher-class students via several voluntary tutorial sessions organized by the School and youth association.

These 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.

3. 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 IU’s 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. With an understanding of theory and design principles, students are required to implement a real model and perform the test in the laboratory. To provide the best optimal model, students must read several online and library documents and analyze them themselves. By applying project/problem-based teaching, students learn that there is not only a single solution for the problem, and they must direct to self-learning to find solutions with confidence, creativity, and enjoyment, which are crucial characteristics of life-long learning.

In sort, the School is restricted to providing both teachers and students opportunities to engage in teaching and learning activities and to creating the challenge to understand, explore, and support new essential dimensions of learning such as self-directed learning, learning on demand, informal learning, and collaborative and organizational learning. Teachers are supported to be learning teachers, continuously pushing themselves to learn new ways to facilitate teaching and learning and increase student engagement. The courses require students to apply knowledge and skills in authentic, self-directed problems. The courses are designed by integrating working and learning; students can learn within the context of their work on real-world problems with confidence, creativity, and enjoyment.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT

1. The student assessment is constructively aligned to the achievement of the expected learning outcomes

• The course outcomes are built and improved by instructors to achieve the program outcomes, including the expected knowledge, skills, attitudes, competencies, and habits of mind. Furthermore, the assessment criteria are built based on the course content, ensuring that suitable course outcomes are achieved. The criteria are generally used to assess students’ level through six major categories: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Students’ assessment is made through classroom communication, assignments, laboratory activities, exams, projects, and theses.
• Classroom communication, assignments, laboratory activities, and exams are designed to evaluate the simplest to the most complex levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, which are remembering, understanding, and applying (using a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction).
• Projects and thesis: are used to assess students’ level of applying (what they learned in the classroom to real-world situations in engineering practices), analyzing, evaluating, and creating knowledge and skills.
• The curriculum of the CM undergraduate program was designed to give students a solid science and engineering foundation with an emphasis on scientific research, practical skills, and a multidisciplinary approach. The assessment methods covering those objectives include:
• Midterm exams, final exams, quizzes, and home assignments assess the basic science and engineering knowledge of students;
• Lab performance evaluation assesses the practical skills of students;
• Project results assess the knowledge of students with emphasis on research skills and capability of conducting independent work;
• Finally, internship, pre-thesis, and thesis evaluation cover all objectives’ assessments.

2. 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.

Admission

• By special selection: Candidates who pass special national competitions or international Olympiads in Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, or Computing will be selected by Admission Panel
• Via the national university entrance exam: Every July, high-school students participate in the national entrance exam organized by MOET. Based on the test results, the student can choose a field and University to apply for admission. Some English courses are required for students who do not meet the required level of English.

In 2017, IU operated SAT subjective test to collect 35% of the total students.

International students: International students, who do not follow MOET’s standardized curriculum, can apply for admission following the process announced to international applicants on the IU website.

Transfer students: Students from abroad universities can be transferred to IU programs. The Admission Panel screens and admission interviews. Students from a department or School can be transferred to another IU program within IU.

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

Graduation assessment

Students who have completed 120 credits out of 150 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.

3. Methods including assessment rubrics and marking schemes are used to ensure validity, reliability, and fairness of student’s assessment

Instructors examine each assessment tool’s validity, reliability, and fairness every time to obtain the results of student assessment or from student feedback. Necessary changes in student assessment are discussed and improved accordingly by instructors and the School.

Written Examination: There is also a well-defined process for making and approving the exam texts. Lecturers must submit the exam question at least 03 days before the exam date. Each exam question set has to be approved by the Head of the School to ensure that the course’s learning outcomes are met. 

Laboratory Report: The laboratory assessment requires students to perform performance testing and report experimental results. Laboratory report shows all results of laboratory experiments integrated with students’ understanding of the laboratory assignment.

Assignment and Presentation: At IU, most courses have quizzes and homework assignments. In addition, presentation is required for some courses and compulsory for capstone projects and thesis.

Internship assessment: Each student is supervised by one advisor from a company and one from the CEM school. The students must report their work during the internship weekly to the assigned School advisor via email. At the end of the internship, they submit their reports and present practical knowledge, skills, and professional attitudes they learned from the company.

Pre-thesis and thesis assessment: The pre-thesis is the primary course providing students with essential research skills and knowledge to complete the thesis. The thesis is performed within 1 semester.

Graduation approval: For graduation, students at the School are required to complete a total of 158 credits (pass the graduation thesis defense), obtain TOEFL scores of 550 or equivalents, and accomplish the military training duty. Every semester, the OAA prepares a list of potential candidates for graduation, which is reviewed by the School. The university committee discusses and gives its approval.

4. Feedback on student assessment is timely and helps to improve learning

The School assigns an advisor for each class, responsible for systematically collecting, reviewing, and using evidence or information related to student learning. The advisor consults students on their course registration each semester. Based on the student’s performance, the advisor helps them see what areas need to be re-addressed to increase their learning performance. Students meet their supervisors weekly to review their design work when performing projects or thesis. These regular meetings allow students to response freely rather than trying to get the “right” answer or look good, and also allow supervisors opportunities to determine the fact that student learning related to considering the topic is somewhat lacking, to inform the students about confusion and make adjustments to address this confusion. By doing this, students are provided feedback about their learning and new learning opportunities/strategies to increase their learning. When getting results of their performance (Assignment, Quiz, Presentation, Midterm test, Final Test, Lab report), students can contact instructors to arrange a face-to-face meeting for a detail discussion on the results and get advice for improvement.

5. Students have ready access to the appeal procedure

IU has a policy and procedure to ensure all enrolled students have ready access to a fair and inexpensive complaints and appeals process. Students are encouraged to resolve complaints informally in the first instance. Any staff member can attempt to assist the student in resolving informal complaints. Informally, if the matter is resolved, there is no need for other parties to be involved or for a record to be kept. However, the student should proceed to a formal resolution if the issue is not resolved. The formal appeal or complaint must be in writing and submitted to the School and OOA. All complaints are considered in the first instance by 1) reviewing relevant documentation, 2) considering any informal decision made to date, 3) discussing the matter with the student and any other relevant parties, 4) forming a recommendation, and 5) notifying the student in writing of the outcome.

An instructor has two weeks to mark the midterm or final exam and informs students of their grade 2 or 3 days before submitting the grade to OAA. If a student does not satisfy with the grade, he/she can meet the instructor personally to review their marks. If a student does not satisfy with the grade after it has been submitted to OAA, he/she can ask for a re-assessment.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The curriculum is logically structured with general courses, fundamental courses, specialized courses, include ing elective courses, and a graduation thesis that balances specific and general courses as shown in the Table 1.

Table 1. Program Structure and Modules’ Contributions

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 CM curriculum is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is up-to-date just after CM receives stakeholders’ feedback who need graduates with good soft skills such as self-studying, writing, drawing, presentation, and communication ability in English.