Innovation, Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education EE2008 The Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre and the UK Centre for Materials Education 1 P082 Institutional Strategies Implementing Outcome-Based Education for Engineering - First Experiences from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Shahrin Mohammad (shahrin@fka.utm.my ), Siti Hamisah Tapsir Ahmad Kamal Idris, Mohammad Zaki Kamsah, Mohd Salleh Abu and Norihan Abu Hassan (norihass@citycampus.utm.my) Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Abstract Being a developing nation, Malaysia strives to compete within the global frontiers in science and technology. Compared with developed nations, educating and training of engineers is viewed as social needs and obligations. Over the last fifty years of independence, there has been a mushrooming of industries, resulting in a high demand for engineers. The expectation to produce quality engineers is high, and this role is not an easy task. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has been responsible for producing the majority of engineers for the country for more than 30 years. With the impact of the Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000), crafted by ABET, the university has been continuously stepping up efforts to improve its programmes to meet the above aspirations. Therefore, as Malaysia’s premier university for engineering, UTM first embarked on the development and implementation of a model of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) from as early as 2002 to programmes offered in the university. During that year, an awareness program regarding OBE was introduced to academic staff of the Faculty of Science. OBE was deemed essential to meet the requirement for Malaysia to become a full signatory member of The Washington Accord. The objectives of OBE are to incorporate professional skills into the programme curriculum, as well as knowledge and technical competencies of students. UTM’s Outcome-Based Education has involved three stages of development: (i) the planning stage (ii) the implementation stage, and (iii) the assessment stage. Discussion in this paper focuses on the process of implementation, and the challenges faced by university administrators to make OBE successful. Introduction Being a developing nation, Malaysia strives to compete within the global frontiers in science and technology. Compared with developed nations, educating and training of engineers is seen as social needs and obligations. Prior to independence of the nation, hardships resulting from conflict, war and colonialism further aggravated the situation of producing adequate numbers of qualified engineers. After independence, factors such as the stability of the country, and the realization of the importance of education, have contributed to the change of scenario where more locals are training as engineers, although still in relatively small numbers, though. Over the last fifty years of independence, there has been a mushrooming of industries, resulting in a high demand for engineers. The expectation to produce quality engineers is high, and this role is not an easy task. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has been responsible for producing the majority of the engineers for the country for more than 30 years. With the impact of the Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000), crafted by ABET, the university has been continuously stepping up efforts to improve its programmes to meet the above aspirations through changes to its engineering programs. Therefore, as Malaysia’s premier university in engineering, UTM first embarked on developing and implementing a model of Outcome-Based Education from as early as 2002 to programmes offered in the university. During that year, an awareness program regarding OBE was introduced to