Lebanese University
Faculty of Engineering
Beirut - Hadath
Department of Electricity & Electronics
Specialities:
- Power
- Telecommunications
SELF-EVALUATION DOCUMENT
-2007-
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__
Contents
A. The Subject Provision
A.1
Introduction and Context
A1.1. The Lebanese University [1]
A.1.2. The Faculty of Engineering
A.2
Overall Aims of the Electrical/Electronic Engineering programme
B. Evaluation of the subject Provision
B.1 Academic Standards
B.1.1 Learning Outcomes
B.1.2 Curriculum
B.1.3 Assessment
B.1.4 Student Achievement
B.2 Quality of Learning Opportunities
B.2.1 Teaching and Learning
B.2.2 Student Progression
B.2.3 Learning Resources
B.3 Quality Assurance and Enhancement
C. References
Appendix 1 Programme Specification (PS)
Appendix 2 Key Information and Data (KID)
1
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lebanese University
Faculty of
Engineering
Common Core Department
Common Engineering Core Programme
2 years (4 semesters)
Mechanical
Engineering
Department
Electricity & Electronics
Engineering Department
Civil
Engineering
Department
Common Electrical & Electronic
Engineering Program
1.5 years (3 semesters)
Power Speciality
Telecommunication
1.5 years
Speciality
(3 semesters)
1.5 years
(3 semesters)
Position and general structure of the Faculty of Engineering of the Lebanese University
2
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A. The Subject Provision
A.1
Introduction and Context
A1.1. The Lebanese University [1]:
Founded in 1953 [2], the Lebanese University is the only public university in Lebanon. It is
composed of 17 faculties and academic institutions. Teaching languages are Arabic and/or French
and/or English. The University is financially supported by the government, therefore on the one hand
registration fees are negligible but on the other hand required learning and management resources and
materials are affected by the economic status of the country.
The Administration of the University is carried out by means of a board composed of faculties'
deans, faculties' representatives of the teaching staff, two academic referees and the general secretary.
The president of the board (the rector) is nominated for a 5 years mandate by the ministry council.
A.1.2. The Faculty of Engineering:
The Faculty of Engineering was founded in 1974 by a presidential decree number 9305 [2]. There
are 3 branches geographically distributed in Beirut (Hadath), Mount Lebanon (Roumieh) and North of
Lebanon (Tripoly).
These branches provide the same programs and deliver an Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical or
Civil Engineering Diploma after 5 years of successful study in the faculty (2 years of common core
engineering + 3 years of engineering major).
Graduate programs are provided by the Masters department of the Faculty in Hadath where the
location of the Dean is. It delivers a Masters in Industrial Control, Masters in Communication
Networks, Masters in Mechatronics.
There are four departments in each branch of the Faculty:
- Common trunk (Common Core Engineering Programme, 2 years)
- Electrical & Electronic (Electrical/Electronic Engineering Diploma, 3 years)
- Mechanical (Mechanical Engineering Diploma, 3 years)
- Civil (Civil Engineering Diploma, 3 years)
Table-1 shows students' distribution across the programs provided by the Beirut branch.
All programmes in the Faculty are divided in two semesters per year (fall and spring). Students
must succeed in each semester of the program in order to be accepted into the next one. A semester
programme is provided once a year. Criteria of success are the same for all engineering diploma
programs (See Appendix 1 PS for details on these criteria).
3
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Electrical &
Electronic
Engineering
Mechanical
Engineering
Civil
Engineering
Total
Year
common
trunk
2000 -2001
2001 -2002
2002 -2003
2003 -2004
2004 -2005
2005 -2006
2006 -2007
321
343
314
325
400
439
462
148
144
151
174
168
172
159
97
114
103
99
120
119
123
71
54
45
32
40
54
80
637
655
613
630
728
784
788
Table 1: Number of students in each department (Beirut Branch)
A.2
Overall Aims of the Electrical/Electronic Engineering programme are to:
1. Graduate multidisciplinary engineers.
2. Give a general profile to engineers graduated from the power or from the telecommunication
specialty.
3. Graduate Engineers able to establish the relationships between theoretical and practical aspects of a
problem.
4. Graduate engineers able to follow up on their own recent technical developments
5. Graduate engineers able to use appropriate ICT tools during any design, maintenance or analysis of
an engineering project.
6. Graduate engineers with intellectual skills enabling them to set numeric models, analyze
measurement results, solve technical problems and integrate different technologies in their design.
7. Graduate engineers able to collaborate efficiently in team work and to execute accurately tasks
allocated to them within their team.
8. Graduate engineers that meet the demands of the local and regional (Arab countries) market.
9. Provide the necessary skills to enable the high achieving students to pursue postgraduate studies.
B.
Evaluation of the subject Provision
B.1 Academic Standards
B.1.1 Learning Outcomes
1. Intended Learning Outcomes specified in Appendix 1 (Programme Specifications) are produced
following an interpretation of the curriculum and discussions with the academic staff in order to meet
the programme aims. As example, aims number 1, 2 and 3 are reached because of one of the teaching
objectives for mini-project and final year project and seminars courses, is to use previously acquired
knowledge from multiple disciplinary domains in order to achieve the project requirements. Other
teaching objectives are set for all the courses in order to cover all the specified aims listed above. ILO's
are then produced by grouping courses by domains and splitting objectives of each domain to different
categories for the production of ILOs as specified in the first section of part B in the programme
specification.
2. Through ILOs that are set for courses like seminars and project design (2.9.11 T&P, 2.9.11 T&P),
majority of students acquire the technique of following up recent technical development. No specific
4
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
study exists in order to define the local and regional demand in engineers, but because of the
multidisciplinary and self learning profiles of our students, all our graduates are locally and regionally
hired with no difficulty. On the other side, ILOs relative to the knowledge and understanding category
take into consideration a provision of deep theory. Therefore, around 20 percent of our students
acquire this deep theory and are able to pursue graduate programmes.
3. ILOs set in the specific skills category are numerous and diverse. They could be applied only on
highly skilled students previously selected from a two year common core engineering programme, as
the Grande Ecole System in France is.
4. Since the ILOs have been set recently during the generation of the programme specification,
students are not yet informed about them. But continuous discussions between students and their
teachers, between students' representatives and the head of department provide an implicit
dissemination of the programme aims and teaching objectives. In order to make applicants, enrolled
students, employers and all staff be better informed about the programme specifications, the future
intension consists of publishing a programme handbook.
B.1.2 Curricula
5. Before being enrolled on the Electrical Engineering Programme, students have to achieve two years
of common engineering core programme (CECP). The CECP is spread over two years with two
semesters per years and 16 weeks per semester. This programme consists of the following categories
of courses: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, ICT and General. Table 2 shows the distribution of these
courses in each category and each semester.
Semester
Math
Physics
Chemistry
ICT
General
Total
(hours/week)
I
16
5
3
3
3
30
Common Core
II
III
15
11
7
7
4
4
3
4
4
8
33
34
IV
3
18
2
5
6
34
Table 2. Number of courses per category (detailed in PS)
6. Mathematical courses are provided to give students a deep knowledge required in major engineering
programmes for setting numeric models, for analyzing numeric results and for solving complex
problems. Topics given in this category are so deeply treated, that they would be useful even in
graduate studies [1]. Courses related to physics and chemistry are provided to give student basic
knowledge of physical phenomenon. These are also deeply treated in order to give students a strong
theoretical grasp, which is the standard of "Grande Ecole" in France.
7. ICT courses are provided to give required computer tools like programming languages, scientific
and office work software. General courses are given to improve different skills relative to the practice
of foreign languages, engineering drawings and practical workshops.
5
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
8. The electrical engineering program is given over 3 years (6 semesters). During these years, our
students follow a condensed programme made of 26 courses in the common core part, 23 courses in
each specialty and 8 laboratory courses over the program. All these courses are given following a
schedule of around 32 hours/week [18] (table 3) (for more details look in tables presented in PS –
appendix 1). Courses are defined in the faculty presidential decree and their content is found in the
University handbook [1,4].
9. During the first three semesters common Electrical/Electronic core courses are provided, during the
last three semesters courses relative to two different specialties are provided: Power or
Telecommunication. Course content for this programme are described in details in a main handbook
[1] relative to all faculties, which is provided in all the libraries of the faculties, and stored as html
pages on the Lebanese University site [3]. Each instructor distributes at the beginning of the semester
his course specification [4].
10. The graduation of multidisciplinary engineers is provided through the distribution of courses over
multiple domains such as Power, Telecommunications, Control, Electronics, ICT, Project Management
and Economics.
11. Relevent ILOs concerns in one side multidiscipline profile and in the other side deep theoretical
knowledge. Courses given in the three common semesters insure deep theoretical profile and those
given in the next three specialty semesters provide a deeper knowledge in the specialty (Power or
telecommunication). Some of the courses in the specialty phase are given in order to produce a self
learning and a multidisciplinary profile through projects and seminars (2.9.11, 2.9.12, 2.10.1)
12. Given that we aim to develop a general profile for the graduates from each specialty, the
curriculum is designed to provide a mixture of power generation, transmission, protection, and control
for the power specialty and a mixture of computer networking, telecommunication systems/interfaces,
audio/video processing and transmission for the Telecommunication specialty.
13. For efficiency and economic reasons, most local and regional engineering institutions need to
recruit engineers able to be easily and quickly adapted to any variation in their strategy. The solid basic
knowledge acquired in all fields of electrical engineering during semesters 5, 6, and 7 provide to
students an important tool for studying by their own any new topic of the electrical engineering
domain. We have seen that self education procedure is acquired through projects.
14. The curriculum is structured by domains of the electrical engineering. Each domain is provided
horizontally across all the semesters and the evolution in this domain is performed through courses that
become more subject specific during coming semesters. Also, at the same time general skills and
intellectual skills are more and more reinforced from one semester to the next one, this is due to the
increasing quantity of courses along the programme ensuring these skills. This is the case of courses
based on project design for learning purpose. Also it concerns courses like mini-projects and seminars.
15. The financial budget that must be considered for necessary academic activities in order to maintain
the curriculum up to date is quasi inexistent. Even though, a first curriculum modification was
established around eight years ago and the major modification was in the lab restructuring by
introducing more subject diversity and the second was in the last semester by affecting the only final
year project courses to this semester. Actually another modification is going to be implemented by
introducing the European LMD system ( see section 48). Also there is a self motivation of academic
staff which maintains an up to date provision by continuously improving the content and learning tools
relative to their courses. The following are two examples of concerned staff activities:
6
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 Full time professors establish strong academic relations with important academic institutions in
France [11], leading to collaboration agreements and to continual improvement of courses’ content
like Telecommunication, Digital Signal Processing and Power Electronics courses.
 Professors involved in research, industrial or engineering activities perform continuous
modifications to courses they provide in order to be in accordance with up to date technologies [12,
26]. Continuous meetings between a faculty representative and the Association of Lebanese
Industrialist are done.
B.1.3 Assessment
16. Students' work is assessed by a variety of different means. Mid-term and final written exams [13]
are used in most of the courses, in order to evaluate the knowledge and analysis capability of students
in applying appropriately learned theory to specific technical domains. Slots of 90 minutes are given to
solve problems and topics related to a course. Required topics that students should revise for the exam
are defined by the instructor, providing him with the means to evaluate students' achievement.
17. Grading weighting distributed on the questions and exercises to be solved are announced on the
question paper. There is no a specific rule concerning the repartition of weights but in general they are
set in order to have around 80% of success in the exam.
18. In relation to the security of examinations, questions are prepared and typed by the instructor and
they are transmitted to the administration one day before the exam. All question sheets are enclosed in
special envelopes that are opened just at the beginning of the exam for distribution. Students write
their answers on exam booklets, the names of students are written and hidden on this booklet in order
to perform anonymous correction. Exams are double-marked by the course instructor and by another
faculty member of a similar speciality. If there is a disagreement between markers the final grade is set
following a final decision after a discussion.
19. Another form of assessment is the Course project [5]. Small projects are given during some courses
like digital control, microprocesors, electrical machines… This provides some knowledge
reinforcement more analysis skills. Different project subjects or a subject with different parameters are
given and have to be carried out by teams of two or three students. The instructor supervises the
evolution of the project work during the semester by means of advice given during meetings with
students. The project is assessed by a report and/or a practical product submitted by the end of the
semester. The instructor evaluates the work by giving a project grade to team members like in digital
control course or grades are given differently to each member of the team based on discussions with
the instructor like in electrical machine course. Predefined weight is given to the project grade in the
course final grade calculation. At the end of each semester all averages are calculated following a
general formula set by the faculty decree (look in PS annex section 3).
20. The final year project [6] has to be completed on a full-time basis during all the last semester
before graduation. Therefore, the last semester grading average is the grade given to the final year
project. This work is evaluated by a jury which is designated by the head of the department. The jury is
formed by faculty members and external examiners in cases where the project was carried out and
supervised in an external local or foreign institution. Evaluation is based on the quality of the
submitted report, on the oral presentation, on discussion with the jury members, on obtained results
and on successful project completion.
21. Some times and not regularly instructors distribute the exam solution or they solve it during the
class. All projects reports are given back to students with the instructor remarks. If a student has an
7
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
unexpected grade he can ask officially for a reevaluation, which is a process that takes time and done
without the student presence.
B.1.4 Student Achievement
22. All undergraduate programmes provided by the Faculty of Engineering at the Lebanese University
should meet an academic level similar to that of the "Grandes Écoles" in France. All learning resources
and methodologies are exploited in order to graduate engineers meeting such a level as a minimum
expectation. This level is mainly measured by the percentage of hired graduate in institutions of high
reputation. We don't have an official document issued from an official department where this
percentage is given, but through feedbacks coming from famous successful local, regional and
international institutions (Siemens, Nokia, EDL, Moeller…) we know that our graduate have acquired
a Grande Ecole standard. On the other side according to an agreement between Grande Écoles
institutions and our faculty, best students from the fourth year are selected to achieve in France the
fifth year.
23. Unless there is a specific case, all our students enrolled in the fifth year are successfully graduated
(particular cases may exist due to social or health problems). The selection of students is performed
during the years before the fifth year, therefore no fails are noticed in the fifth year (table 4.a).
Effectively, during the fifth year there are two categories of courses: courses focusing on design and
those focusing on the introduction of new technical topics. The first category is mainly evaluated on
the project achievement that must be reached by all students since they are continuously assisted by the
instructor. The second category is evaluated on exams which show that the student has regularly
attended the course. On the diploma no evaluation mark is mentioned but it is indicated on the
transcript sheet.
24. Engineers graduating from this programme do not have to target a specific Electrical/Electronic
domain for employment because they have a multidisciplinary profile. Based on the table 4.a, we can
see repartition of graduates between power and telecommunication (an average of 29% graduated from
the power specialty and 71% from the telecommunication calculated from 2002 until 2007). Variation
of the percentage of reparation is noticed according to the market demand. Our graduates do not have
to wait more than few months after graduation before being recruited, if they are not recruited before
graduation which is the case of around 30% of our students that are either enrolled for master degree in
the university where their final year project is achieved (University of Versailles, University of
Compiègne…), or hired in the hosted training institution (Moeller, LACECO…). Due to their
multidisciplinary profile and the tri-lingual skills acquired during study (Arabic, English and French)
Arab countries are the major recruitment for our graduates [14]. The faculty also recruits a number of
its own graduates to work as Lab assistants (approximately one or two per year). The general skills
acquired by our graduates enable them to work as sales engineers, to get administrative positions and
even to set up their own engineering company [14].
25. Information on graduates going on to postgraduate is not officially stated but those who are
enrolled through agreements with foreign universities constitute around 20% of graduate students.
Since the theoretical aspect is deeply provided by this programme most of our graduates who apply for
a masters degree programme are accepted (around 95% of applicants) [16]. Some agreements are
established between our faculty and French academic institutions in order to accept highly ranked
fourth year students (one year before graduation) as foreign enrolled students [11] (some of them
receive scholarships from the French Government or from the Association of Francophone
Universities). This procedure gives the opportunity to those students to complete the fifth year in
France and to get simultaneously the engineering diploma from both institutions (Lebanese University
8
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
and French institution) and the masters degree, due to the European Licence Maitrise Doctorat (LMD)
System. Most of those students stay in France for Doctorate study, and many of them are still there and
recruited to French Universities and academic research laboratories [17].
B.2 Quality of Learning Opportunities
B.2.1 Quality of Teaching and Learning (look in section 2 of the PS annex)
26. Courses related to the Electrical Engineering Programme are distributed over three years (6
semesters) and categorized as theoretical (with the methods used being lectures and TD*), practical
(Labs), general (Seminars and non specialized courses) and projects. These categories are designed in
order to reinforce knowledge, understanding, subject-specific, intellectual and general skills of the
student.
Common Engineering Core Programme
(Common Trunk)
I
II
III
IV
18
19
20
18
10
11
9
11
2
3
5
5
30
33
34
34
Semesters
Lecture
TD*
Lab
Total
(hours/week)
Table 3.a. Number of hours per week and per semester for each category of
study in common engineering core programme
Common
Electrical
Engineering Core
V
VI
VII
17
16
18
12
10
8
3
6
6
Semester
Lecture
TD*
Lab
Seminar
Projects
32
Total
Hours/Week
32
32
Power
Specialty
VIII
15
10
6
2
33
IX
19
5
6
1
31
Telecommunication
Specialty
X
VIII
16
9
6
32
32
2
33
IX
18
7
6
1
32
X
32
32
Table 3.b. Number of hours per week and per semester for each category of study in
Electrical/Electronic Engineering Programme
27. In lectures, basic and theoretical knowledge is equitably transmitted to students along the
programme path through lectures and "Travaux Dirigés" (TD). In the latter, exercises and problems
related to courses are given in class and supervised by the instructor. In labs, practical skills are
reinforced by increasing along the programme path the number of lab hours. The main objective is to
establish a link between theoretical and practical aspects of different topics of Electrical, Electronics,
telecommunications or computer domains. A weekly scheduled slot is reserved for seminars during
which external specialists give presentations on up to date specific subjects [8]
9
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
28. Different types of projects are specified in the programme:
1- Projects given within the course. It will provide students with the opportunity to use appropriate
software tools relative to the course, to extend his knowledge to some extra topics of the given subject
and to learn how to search efficiently on useful references for achieving the project [5].
2- Projects given during a specific course named "Mini-Projects" [5]. The learning outcomes for this
course are the skills students will need for their final years projects. They work in small teams on a
predefined multidisciplinary subject, they perform research, design and analysis necessary for
achieving requirements, write a final technical report and present results during an oral presentation.
3- The final year project having similar learning outcomes to the mini-project but it requires a much
greater quantity of work on a wider subject. It is carried out during the last semester on a full time
basis [6].
29. One month at least of summer training [9] is required between semester 8 and semester 9. During
this training students are asked to work as trainee engineers in an external enterprise, where they learn
how to achieve efficiently scheduled tasks, how to collaborate in teamwork and how to respect the
institution rules.
30. To summarize: different learning methods are employed and each one is followed appropriately in
order to reach a specific objective:
 Theoretical aspects are explained on a white board or during projection sessions in amphitheaters or
classes.
 Applied exercises are solved in class through discussions with students.
 Practical aspects are given during lab hours where students are distributed on all the department
laboratories. Teams of two to three students are distributed on different experiments and each
laboratory is supervised by an assistant. A distribution schedule is set by the lab assistant at the
beginning of each semester [18].
31. As regards student participation, they participate effectively in the learning process by means of
project achievement, due to multiple meetings with the instructor who discusses topics and gives
advice to each project team separately. At the beginning of the semester the instructor transmits to
students the material to be used for learning support (text book, written notes, photocopies of slides,
solved exercises, references…). The final year project provides the most important self learning
opportunity. The project team (mostly two students) is charged with undertaking necessary
documentation, analysis, implementation, tests and measurements in order to achieve the project
requirements [6].
32. Some previous trial was done in order to settle an evaluation of teaching/learning through
questionnaires given to students. But this process was not repeated in order to prevent any result
distortion due to the influence of students' representatives who are politically elected. Therefore, the
questionnaire process is replaced by means of continuous discussions between students and teachers
and head of departments. Results of these discussions are fed back to the faculty committee in order to
take appropriate decisions regarding teaching quality, programme progression…
B.2.2 Student Progression
33. Before being enrolled in the Electrical Engineering Programme, students have to complete two
years of common engineering core programme (CECP). This programme is academically managed by
the common core department which is an independent department in the faculty. Acceptance into the
10
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CECP is conditional upon success in a national written entrance exam specific to the faculty of
engineering of the Lebanese University[10]. The majority of applicants to this exam are highly ranked
in the national scientific baccalaureate. The percentage of success in the faculty entrance exam is
around 25% (see Appendix 2 (KID) for statistical tables). Accepted students are divided into English
educated and French educated groups, where they follow the same programme and perform the same
exams but in French or in English.
34. Accepted students that pass the entrance exam to the faculty have to achieve successfully the first
two years of the common engineering core programme. The third year of study represents the first year
of Electrical/Electronic engineering programme. At the end of each semester the department faculty
members hold the deliberation meeting. During this meeting, averages and course grades are discussed
for students who are slightly below the pass threshold which is set by the decree (see Appendix 1 (PS)
section 4). Depending on these students’ level and on their academic history, the department board
may or may not give them a chance to be accepted into the next semester. This given chance is
registered in the student history providing a closer follow up on the student's academic progression
[19].
35. Tables 4 show the number of yearly enrolled students with percentage of fails per year (table 4.a)
or per semester (tables 4.b and 4.c).
The number of failed students varies according to the study level. The highest percentage is noticed
during the Third year (failing average from 2000 until 2007 is 11.4%) compared to the Fourth year
(failing average from 2000 until 2007 7.8%). No fails are noticed in the fifth year, the reason is
mentioned previously.
Reasons of fails are:
- The Third year is a new stage for the students where they start the major which increases the
number of required courses (about 10 courses per semester compared to 5 or 6 courses in other
Lebanese faculties).
- Passing requirements are highly selective: a student who fails only one semester is required to
repeat the whole year, and to be able to pass the semester, the student has to got a 12/20 average in
all his courses (an average 10/20 is accepted only for two courses per two semesters).
- Some students need to work to cover their living needs which negatively affect their results.
- Few students, due to language difficulty, might wrongly understand the given of the exam which
inducts wrong answers.
- There should be a reconsideration of the passing conditions making the passing system change from
semesterly based to yearly based (look to the quality assurance section).
Programme Title:
Third year
Electrical & Electronic Engineering Diploma
Fourth year
Fifth year
Year
Power
Telecommunications
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled Failed Enrolled
Failed
48
10 (20.8%)
48
10(20.8%)
44
0
6
0
2000 -01
52
5 (9.6%)
45
0
37
0
0
0
2001 -02
61
5
(8.2%)
45
1(2.2%)
39
0
6
0
2002 -03
71
3 (4.2%)
56
2(3.5%)
29
0
15
0
2003 -04
52
3 (5.8%)
66
2(3.0%)
39
0
11
0
2004 -05
56
5(8.9%)
53
7(13.2%)
41
0
23
0
2005 -06
58
9 (15.5%)
55
7(12.7%)
29
0
17
0
2006 -07
Table 4.a: Number of students in the Electrical & Electronics department per academic year (Beirut Branch)
11
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Programme Title: Electrical & Electronic Engineering Diploma
Common Electrical Eng Core Programme
Third year
Fourth year
Semester VII
Semester V
Semester VI
Year
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled
Failed
48
7 (14.5%)
41
3(7.3%)
48
8(16.6%)
2000 -01
52
4 (7.7%)
48
1(2.1%)
45
0
2001 -02
61
2(3.3%)
59
3(5.1%)
45
0
2002 -03
71
3(4.25%)
68
0
56
0
2003 -04
52
3(5.8%)
49
0
66
2(3.0%)
2004 -05
56
4(7.1%)
52
1(1.9%)
53
7(13.2%)
2005 -06
58
0
58
9(15.5%)
55
1(1.8%)
2006 -07
Table 4.b: Number of students in the Electrical & Electronics department per semester (Beirut Branch)
Year
Programme Title: Electrical & Electronic Engineering Diploma
Specialty Power Engineering Programme Specialty Telecommunication Engineering
Programme
Fourth year
Fifth year
Fourth year
Fifth year
Semester VIII
Semester IX
Semester VIII
Semester IX
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled
Failed
Enrolled
Failed
5
0
40
2(5.0%)
44
2000 -01
6
0
0
0
39
0
37
2001 -02
15
0
6
0
30
1(3.3%)
39
2002 -03
13
2(15.4%)
15
0
43
0
29
2003 -04
23
0
11
0
41
0
39
2004 -05
17
0
23
0
29
0
41
2005 -06
19
2(10.5%)
17
0
35
4(11.4%)
29
2006 -07
Table 4.c: Number of students in the Electrical & Electronics department per semester (Beirut Branch)
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
36. Grades of mid-term exams are announced during the semester in order to make students aware of
the effort they must make for achieving successfully the semester. Students that encounter academic
problems in a specific course may ask for a meeting with the instructor and/or with the head of
department in order to find appropriate solutions. Meetings are also provided between the head of
department and classes' representatives to solve general problems related to a course performance or to
exams' schedule or to students' work overload. Although, instructors in the department give advices for
students, but still we find a necessity of creating a specific committee or department to take care of the
students affairs (majors, study problems ,etc.).
37. Students are supposed to be at least fairly good in English and French and are supposed to solve
exams subjects written in one of these languages (foreign language support is given during the
engineering core programme). But in order to prevent the language level affecting the quality of exam
performance, some instructors write the exam subject in both English and French and the others give
some translating help during the exam [13].
12
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
B.2.3 Learning Resources [See also Appendix 2 (KID) section 5]
38. Most of the instructors are from the faculty academic staff [24] (see table 3 of the KID). Those
who are not, they must have the same profile as full timers (PhD graduate from institution of good
international reputation). The faculty needs to hire these part timers because full timers have reached
their academic load in terms of teaching hours. The need for part timers is announced in a public
media, the dean of the faculty nominates a committee made of full timers and tenures in order to select
appropriate candidates who perform a presentation to the committee. Because of shortage in extrabudget for hiring new instructors, classes are not split in sections. Due to the provision of multiple
different domains (see curriculum outline tables in the PS appendix) in the programme the number of
instructors is increased according to these domains and not according to the number of students. Some
of our instructors have a teaching load in other programmes like core engineering, mechanical
engineering and civil engineering.
39. Academic staff is expected to improve continuously their course content and performance. Those
who are involved in research or consultation or technical activities [26], transmit to students their own
professional experience through projects or lectures. As example the electrical installation course is
given according to recent standards used by electrical engineering design enterprises, another example
concerns advanced IT courses that are based on up to date technology in operating systems and
software architectures.
40. Laboratory assistants are distributed across different labs in the electrical/electronic department
according to their majors. Each member of this staff is in charge of conducting experiments in the lab
under the supervision of the course leader, and also in charge of maintaining the equipment of the
laboratory [25]. In order to ensure an effective learning process during lab hours, the majority of our
laboratory assistants are graduated from this programme, therefore no extra time is required for these
assistants to become familiar with lab equipment [15].
41. A library is situated in 1500 m2 three storey block; it contains more than 15,000 books, in both
English & French, in various engineering fields. The library management has to be more improved in
order facilitate the search process (actually the process is manual, sophisticate software is too
expensive and the process of implementing it is complicate). A yearly budget is dedicated to purchase
books for the library, (60000$ in the academic year 2007-2008). The need of our students is met
because the process of books' selection is made according to instructors' advice. Administrative
constraints can't allow online subscription to journals.
42. Computer rooms supervised by assistants are provided for students in order to facilitate their
assignments' achievement. Some of these computers are booked during a whole semester for the use of
final year project students. Because of the important number of computers that we will receive during
2007-2008, there won't be any shortage in computers for students' use.
43. Lectures are provided in amphitheaters of up to 120 students capacity. Amphitheaters are designed
following international standards providing students with a comfortable and efficient environment.
During these lectures topics are explained on a white board or using pre-prepared projection slides
[20]. Courses relative to the specialised level and followed by a smaller number of students are given
in classrooms of around 30 students' capacity. In these classes theoretical aspects are given with
applied exercises discussed with the instructor [20].
44. Laboratories are equipped with the most up-to-date and complete equipment. Studies are
performed in order to exploit this equipment efficiently. Laboratory equipment are received recently,
actually there is a process of training on this new equipment and its implementation. Usually a lab
programme is set at the beginning of each semester, groups of two or three students are formed to
13
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
perform required laboratories according to the schedule. A report is submitted to the lab's instructor
who evaluates it according to measurements performed and according to prepared work before and
during the lab session. Actually a process of teaching improvement is implemented through
demonstrations provided in labs by lecturers.
B.3 Quality Assurance and Enhancement
45. The evaluation process launched by the UNDP (Enhancement of Quality Assurance and
Institutional Planning at Arab Universities) concerns currently the Electrical/Electronic engineering
programme provided by the Beirut branch. By the end of this evaluation, the same process will be
extrapolated to other branches and programmes. It is the first time that a self evalustion process is
launch for the faculty.
46. The main constraint that our faculty has, concerns heavy governmental procedures to be followed
in order to perform enhancement modifications on the curricula or on the academic staff. Even though,
the first modification was done in 1993-1994, 13 years after the faculty foundation. There was only
one general electrical engineering specialty, Power and Telecommunication specialties were
introduced. The second attempt of modification has started from 2004 in order to improve the curricula
according to the LMD system and to provide more specialties as mentioned in reference [27] (
"Électromécanique et Énergétique", "Intégration des Systèmes Industriels", "Systèmes Électroniques",
"Télecom et Réseaux", "Systèmes Informatiques". This process is not finished yet because first of all
there must be an agreement between the three branches of the faculty (North branch, Mont-Lebanon
branch and Beirut branche), then after there must be reviewed by a governmental committee for
issuing the decree.
47. Beside the suggested curricula modification, continuous improvement is registered in terms of the
increased number of design projects introduced in courses and in terms of labs equipment
improvement.
48. Locally relations are established with the Association of the Lebanese Industrialists in order to
improve programmes in terms of feedback that come from different meetings and common activities
performed with this association [23]. Based on the yearly students projects fair which involves
academics and industrialists on a national scale, a competition between faculties is done, final year
projects are offered and the mini-project course is improved.
49. Our faculty which is a part of the only public Lebanese University receives continuously foreign
consultancy proposals for programmes improvement. For example, European aid is given for the
transfer to the LMD system [21] and Tempus Programmes are supporting accreditation activities [22].
Due to the LMD system which will be implemented in the future, conditions of success are based on
European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) which will release the passing criteria without affecting the
academic level. We are suggesting a programme with 30 ECTS per semester (15 personal work and
teaching hours per ECTS).
50. Unfortunately the role of students is not considered in the curricula modification process. But we
think that a presentation to the suggested programme must be done to students in order to consider
there remarks.
14
Self-Evaluation Document
Electrical & Electronic Department- Faculty of Engineering - Lebanese University - Beirut
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__
C.
References
References
1. The Lebanese University Handbook
2. Presidential Decree of the Faculty of Engineering
3. Lebanese University site: www.ul.edu.lb
4. Courses' specifications of the Electrical/Electronic Department
5. List of "Mini Projects", courses' projects and examples of reports and presentations
6. List of final year projects and examples of reports and presentations and assessment form
7. Examples of Lab reports
8. Examples of Seminars Subjects
9. Examples of training reports
10. Entrance exam data
11. Agreements with French Academic Institutions and lists of accepted students
12. Examples of Professors' academic external activities
13. Examples of Exams schedule, Given sheets, Answer sheets
14. Random list of local and Arabic Recruiting institutions
15. List of assistants graduated from our Faculty with graduating dates
16. List of Acceptance to Masters
17. Examples of some students working in foreign universities
18. Labs and Lectures' schedules
19. Department's minutes of meeting
20. List of available amphitheaters and classes
21. Announcements from the rectorat related to the LMD system
22. Tempus Programme supporting accreditation activities
23. Minutes of meetings with the Association of Lebanese Industrialists
24. List of academic staff.
25. Laboratory assistants' staff.
26. Staff CVs
27. LMD proposal
15