ACADEMIC INFORMATION:

TEACHING AND LEARNING:-

Introduction:
Teaching is the primary function of the faculty there have been effort to improve teaching standards in the faculty though long and short term training of the staff. A number of staff have attended the training in the backboard representation which target distant learning by electronic means. Some have also attended the TEIL programme at the University that among other thing introduces Teaching and Learning through the internet and put more focus and emphasis on the learner. The aim of these efforts is to ensure that quality of education does not suffer particularly due to increased enrolment of students.

Academic terms:
In the transition period, the Faculty is offering courses in two parallel systems i.e. semesterised mode and the old term mode . the 3rd year and 4th y ear students are pursuing their courses under term system that has been modified to suit the running of lectures at the same time as the semesterised mode. The 1st and 2nd year courses are already running under semester system . the semester consist of 15 weeks of lecture and University Examination at the end of the semester.

Undergraduate programmes:
The Faculty offer Undergraduate courses leading to the following degrees:
B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering.
B.Sc. in Production Engineering.
B.Sc. in Electromechanical Engineering.
B.Sc. in Chemical and process Engineering.
B.Sc. in Mining Engineering and
B.Sc. in Mineral Processing Engineering

The Faculty is therefore offering the six programmes leading to the award of Bachelors degree in the respective specialisation. Like before, the workshop training for the first year students was conducted to all 1st year students by the Training Workshop Department.

Student Admission and enrolment:
The general requirement for the student to be able to join the University are stipulated in the University Prospectus. Students are selected from among the following categories: Direct Entry ; Equivalent Qualifications; And Mature Age Entry schemes.
The minimum admission requirements for each category are as follow:

(i)Direct Entry
Advance Secondary Education with principal level passes in Mathematics and Physics, and at least a subsidiary pass in Chemistry in the Advance Certificate of Secondary Education or Equivalent, or a credit pass in the Ordinary certificate of Secondary Education. Applicants must have at least 5.5 points based on the following scale:
A=5; B=4; C=3; D=2; E=1; S=0.5 and F=0

(ii) Equivalent Qualifications
an equivalent diploma or certificate from a recognized institution, e.g. Full Technician Certificate (FTC), with at least a B grade in Mathematics. In addition the candidate must have an overall average of B in the results of respective final examination

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(iii)Mature Age Scheme
candidate should be 25 years old or above who have completed Secondary School Education and have the followed adult education or are recommended as qulifieds to benefit from a special entrance examination (Mature Age Examination). During such examination, the applicants must score not less than 150 points out of the maximum 200.

Curriculum:
Beginning 2000/01, the courses being offered at the Prospective College of Engineering and Technology have been semesterised giving modules that are examinable at the end of every semester. The academic year has been divided into two semesters.

Laboratory Practical Offered:
Laboratory practical are universally considered to be the important element of the training in any scientific based discipline. By considering that, in most of the courses taught in the Faculty of Mechanics and Chemical Process Engineering, students are also given the opportunity to complement the theory taught in the class by doing experiments in the laboratories

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Practical Training in Industry:
Practical training (PT) of students is done in order to give students the opportunity to appreciate engineering activities in real life. PT is done during the fourth term which lasts for eight (8) weeks. During this term, students are attached to industries where they are assigned work according to their departments and year of study. The training is considered essential in order to link theory and practice. All first, second and third year students must successfully complete their Practical T raining (PT) each year. The contents of training differ each year of study. In their first year students work at craftsmen level. In their second and third year students works at technicians level and at junior engineers level respectively. The responsibility for securing PT places for the students lies with the College, mainly the Office for Relations with Industries (ORI).
The practical training is financed by the Government.

The Faculty also offering Ph.D. programs to qualified candidates.

Staff load for conducting Postgraduate Teaching:
The average staff load in conducting M.Sc. (Eng.) program by course work and dissertation is fairly represented by the students hours per staff on post. The student hours is the sum of the product of total number of hours and the number of the students for all courses offered by a department.

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION

The faculty has inherits the capacity for research and publication that was available in the two departments that have constituted it. Under the new system research and publication matter are handled directly by the various departments and the college. There is for example no Faculty Research and Publication Committee, but the faculty Dean is get informed on the research activities within the departments. The Departments also report on the research and publication matter to the faculty Board.

Research Activities.
At the Faculty there basically three broad types of research projects being carried out, namely:
Research project initiated by Faculty staff and sponsored by the Faculty through its traditional or other funds set aside for research capacity building;
Research project initiated by external partner who wishes to use the potential of Faculty staff and facilities to implement the projects (Contracted research). Under this type of projects, the respective external partner meets all the research costs; and
Technology Development Programmes (TDP) whereby, a research project is initiated, carried-out and financed jointly by the Faculty and an industries partner.

Publications
Publication normally is considered to be a measure of research activities within an academic entity, that is why it is a major component of the annual academic staff performance evaluation.
Lecture Manuscripts and Books
The academic staff are also active in writing books, and lecture manuscripts

Future Outlook
More funding for research expected to be obtained.
The number of research proposals from staff to be increased.
More research equipment to be procured.

Operational Plans fro 2002/2003 - 2006/2007
In the coming years the faculty will put more emphasis on the following:
Encourage and support the staff involved in the ongoing research to compete them. Intended to completion rate of the projects.
More linkages and joint research with the industries will be sought and efforts will be made to encourage multidisciplinary formulation and execution of projects.
Staff will be encourage to keep up publishing papers and where possible increase the number of paper. Also question of manuscripts and even books will be explored.
The faculty will encourage staff to produce the soft copies of their lectures materials that eventually will be made available online. This is in line with the University vision of using modern ICT based teaching methods.

SERVICE TO INDUSTRIES
General background
Under old set up of two departments of chemical and process engineering and mechanical engineering rendered service to industries through the established mechanism of BICO. To date , the same is true and the new department are offering their services in a very similar manner. BICO is now a College organ catering for all the faculties.

Professional Development Programmes

Professional Development Programmes are used to build capacity of practicing engineers in new technologies and knowledge at the same time they are the source of income to the Faculty.

Consultancy Activities
One of the major mandates of the faculty is to provide consultancy services to the growing industries in the country. The faculty boasts of a pool of well trained experts and advanced laboratory and computer facilities that places it at a good position to render such services. In principle all consultancy jobs are to be channeled through BICO. However some consultancies are carried outside BICO.