Marine technology education in Malaysia - 32 years of experience at UTM

Abstract

In 1981, the Marine Technology programme at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was started at Diploma and B. Eng level. For the past 32 years, the changes and development of the programme is now reflected by the establishment of the Marine Technology Department, post-graduate courses - by research and by coursework and the completion of the building of the Marine Technology Laboratory which cost 30 Million Malaysian Ringgit. The Marine Technology programme which is the only programme of its kind in Malaysia blends the various disciplines of Mechanical Engineering, Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, Transportation and Offshore Engineering. The philosophy taken by UTM is that Mechanical Engineering forms the basis of the Marine Technology programme whilst Naval Architecture is taken as the main specialisation supported by the other Marine related disciplines. As such the graduates from this programme are versatile enough to serve the wide-ranging industries either as Naval Architects, Marine Engineers or as Mechanical Engineers. To evaluate on the impact of the Marine Technology programme on the industry, firstly a brief discussion on the state of the Malaysian Marine industry was made, followed by the choice of curriculum, development of facility, efforts made in gaining expertise, contributions of the graduates and lastly, the future outlook of the Marine Technology programme in Malaysia. In conclusion, the presence of the Marine Technology programme has made significant impact on the Malaysian industries. Apart from providing the much-needed human resource, the graduates equipped with technical know-how and aptitude for research are the catalyst for the marine industry to change and become more competitive.