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many parts of the country and mostly the local resources are used in it. For a country like Nepal,
where the transportation to the rural areas of the country is not well connected, this new earth
block will help eradicate these issues. Thus, this earth blocks can be made on site with the use of
natural resources and is most suitable for Nepal which is light, green, economical and most
importantly can resist the seismic forces.
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(accessed Dec 2017).
Restructuring Examination System of Institute of Engineering
for Establishing Center of Excellence in Engineering
Education
Tri Ratna Bajracharya1, Babu Ram Dawadi2, Ram Chandra Sapkota3
Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Pulchowk, Lalitpur, Nepal
Corresponding author: [1triratna, 2baburd, 3rc.sapkota1]@ioe.edu.np
Received: March 28, 2017 Revised: Nov 20, 2017 Accepted: Jan 12, 2018
Abstract: There exists different parameters that act as inuencing factors to
measure the quality of technical education. Nature of examination with its process
and activities has direct and indirect relationship towards quality product and result
status in any academic institution. Institute of Engineering (IOE) is continuously
enhancing the examination process with the objective to increase the quality and
pass rate in the semester examination. Being to conduct several bi-annual exams,
Examination Control Division (ECD) of Institute of Engineering (IOE) is mostly the
busy organization that has to manage examinations for bachelor, masters and PhD
degree programs throughout the year. ECD conducts by-annual semester exams
for regular and back exam of bachelor of engineering students having 10 streams
(Civil, Computer, Electronics, Electrical, Mechanical, Geomatics, Agriculture,
Industrial, Architecture and Automobile) in its four constituent campuses and ten
afliated colleges. Similarly, ECD also conducts bi-annual exams for masters
of engineering programs having seven streams and 24 sub-streams. There are
more than 16,000 examinees in the bachelor exam including regular and back.
Additionally, successful conduction of BE/BArch/ M.Sc. entrance examinations
is also an integral duty of ECD. The student pass rate in the semester exams of
IOE is below expectations. This study is mostly focused on nding the factors
affecting the quality results and approaches of optimizations for better education
at IOE. After reviewing several factors, we proposed “restructuring of regular and
back paper examinations" as one of the major approach that will help to increase
the quality of education and consequently increase the pass rate in the semester
examination system of IOE
Keywords: BE/BArch, admission, IOE, semester exam, quality, entrance
1. Introduction
Institute of engineering (IOE) is one of the decentralized institutes of Tribhuvan University and
it is the biggest engineering institution in Nepal. This institute has Bachelor of Engineering,
Master of Science in Engineering and Ph.D. programs. The diploma program has been phased
out. This institute has more than 16,000 bachelor students, more than 900 masters' students and
consequently increasing number of Ph.D. candidates. IOE has four constituent campuses located
Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 2018, 14(1): 75-81
© TUTA/IOE/PCU
Printed in Nepal
TUTA/IOE/PCU
76
in eastern, central and western region of Nepal including central campus at Pulchowk, Lalitpur.
The bachelor of engineering program is a four years program except architecture which has 5 years
for graduation. Both the bachelor and master's programs are designed in semester system as per
international standards. There are in total 10 streams in bachelor of engineering programs. Other
streams in bachelor of engineering like Biomedical, Chemical and Aeronautical Engineering are
under pipeline to be launched in the near future. Similarly, the institute offers masters programs in
24 different subjects in its 3 constituent campuses as specialized research courses.
It is well known that the students' entrance examination and nal examination systems of the
IOE has been recognized as one of the best students' evaluation system not only in Nepal but
also in regional level. From the examination perspectives, number of examinations has to be
run throughout the year for all streams students including entrance examination of bachelor and
masters levels. The regular exam runs two times a year at the end of each semester and back paper
exam runs two times a year at the mid of each semesters during winter and summer vacation.
From the general calculation, examination control division of IOE has to handle more than 16,000
students (regular and back paper) in one bachelor level exam. Masters level exam runs two times a
year at the end of each semester. All the examinations are to be handled by ECD of IOE. For this,
ECD has to process more than 1600 packets and prepare for more than 500 question sets for one
semester exam.
Like the entrance examination, the semester examination of IOE is highly prestigious. Timely
conduction of semester exam and result publications are the major features of IOE Examination
that helps to maintain the IOE Academic Calendar. However, the non-automated ECD activities
demand for more human resources and increasing hurdles to conduct those examinations. With
the increase of afliated colleges, programs and its students, the operation challenges for the
examination has been increased with the increase of failure rates, accumulation of the back-
paper students to next consequents exams, shortage of physical and human resources leading to
requirement of urgent review on examination patterns and system of IOE.
ECD has taken number of steps to control the quality of Education. Collecting at least three
questions for a subject and moderating this into nal one, scrutinizing at least 15% samples of
the answer packets, evaluating the research projects and lab exam from the external examiners
are the major features of IOE examination. Every subject in the semester are treated as 100%
full marks in which 80% evaluation is done by ECD by taking nal exam while 20% evaluation
is to be performed by the course instructor who shall run number of assessment examinations as
continuous assessment, seminar works, VIVA, assignment, attendance, and evaluate the individual
student's performance. Similarly course/lab instructor continuously evaluate the lab activities by
measuring the lab eld works, reports, VIVA and internal examinations.
2. Methodology
It is revealed that there is a need of a kind of reform in examination system so that the IOE's aim to
establish Excellency in engineering education is achieved. Therefore, a study has been conducted
with the standard methodology. In this study, almost 90% admitted students as sample were taken
to analyze the eligible candidates from entrance and their result in the semesters since the year
2069BS (2012AD). Similarly almost 90% samples were analyzed to identify the pattern of pass
percentage in the semester exam since 2066BS (2009AD). For this analysis, a 10% interval of
secured percentage in marks were taken like greater than 90%, 80 to 90%, and 70 to 80% till 40
to 50%. With this interval, the admitted students and their pass rates in the semester result in each
Restructuring Examination System of Institute of Engineering for Establishing Center of Excellence in ...
77
program were analyzed. SPSS Clementine tool was used for data analysis while MS-Access &
SQL were used for cross verication and validation of data obtained for this analysis.
3. Graduation Status of IOE
Looking into the semester exam pass status of admitted students with different score group at their
entrance exam, gure 1 shows that count of admitted students having lower score in the entrance
exam is higher while their pass rate is lower in the semester exam. This indicates that the factors
that affect the lower pass rate in the semester exam is the higher intake of lower scorer students in
entrance exam. For the precise descriptions of the charts and gures hereafter, we introduce the
following notations:
70 TO 80: The range of entrance score between 70 and 80
LT90GTEQ80: Score is less than 90% & greater than or equal to 80%
LT50GTEQ40: Score is less than 50% & greater than or equal to 40%
Fig. 1: Score wise admitted students and their pass status in the semester exam
Similarly looking into the semester result status since 2066 (2009AD) depicted in Fig. 2, the aggregate
pass percentage has been reducing in an average from 50% to 40% and then towards decreasing
scenarios. This shows that on every semester, numbers of students who fail are increasing making
the examination management more complex for the Examination Control Division of IOE. The
causes and factors that affect the academic environment towards degrading graduation percentage
of IOE have to be identied. This paper is mainly focused on the examination structure of Institute
of Engineering and its impact on quality education with its implication on pass percentage of
students in the semester examination system as an inuencing factor of quality product. Below
section focused on the cause and effects in the examination system and other factors that typically
affect the academic environment at the institute for Nepalese Engineering Education system.
Bajracharya et al.
78
Fig. 2: Students pass percentage since 2066 (2009) in semester exam
4. Factors that Affects and its Mitigation to Quality of Engineering Education at IOE
Quality education has proportional relationship with different factors like institutional infrastructure
and resources, research and development activities of faculty with their strength and quality,
student's intake, student's family environment, evaluation scheme of the institute as well as physical
and mental status of individual students.
Natrajan [6] has dened the quality of Engineering Education as: “the development of intellectual
skills and knowledge that will equip graduates to contribute to society through productive and
satisfying engineering careers as innovators, decision makers and leaders in the national and global
economy". Similarly, Kulkarni [4] has alternatively dened that “quality in engineering education
is an open system at various levels, i.e. students, teachers, curriculum, institutional and state level".
Natrajan [5] has identied the several indicators as key performance index to measure the quality
of technical education. He categorized indicators with respect to three entities; student's quality,
faculty quality and institutional quality. It is obvious that these three parameters shall be dened
under human resources while the sufciency of available physical resources like laboratories,
library, syllabus structure, examination system, physical infrastructure like class room, building,
hostels, sports etc. are additional indicators that directly and indirectly affect the quality product of
engineering education in Nepal.
Pahari [5] performed observational study regarding the quality of engineering education in Nepal
and identied different competency parameters that lead to increase the competency level and
quality of education. The quality product in the technical education also depends on the motivation
to the faculties, government investment on primary and secondary level education together with
the affordability to study with respect to purchasing power of people in Nepal [3].
Every year IOE takes computer based entrance examination to select highly qualied students for
bachelor and masters of engineering studies. Dawadi et al. [2] has analyzed the semester exam result
status of those bachelor of engineering students and compared their score while they achieved in
the entrance examination. This clearly shows that the higher ranked students in the entrance have
greater pass ratio in their semester exam. However, the pass percentage is deteriorating day by
day leading to serious situation that number of back paper applicants are recursively increasing.
Restructuring Examination System of Institute of Engineering for Establishing Center of Excellence in ...
79
Looking into last three years intake, out of almost 11, 000 applicants in the entrance examination,
IOE admits only about 30% meritorious students graduate and among them about 40% graduates
as a regular examinee every year. The remaining 60% students go for back exams and the number
as a consequence accumulates. Hence, the back examiners are increasing. Following sections
briey discusses the causes, effects and factors affecting the pass rate of IOE semester results.
4.1 Semester Exam Structure of IOE
IOE has a x Academic Calendar that species the start of and end of course as well as conducts
the exam according to the calendar date. Two semesters in a year are divided as November to
April Session and May to September session. Fig. 3 shows that the back paper exam of previous
semester held tentatively at the mid of next semester. That means generally 3 months after the
regular exam, the back paper exam happens.
Fig. 3: Existing Semester and Exam Structure of IOE
With the increasing number of back-paper students, the majority of students in the regular
semester classes are back-paper holders. Whenever the semester starts, students simply plan for
the preparation of back paper exam hampering the regular classes. In some afliated colleges,
students bunk the regular class almost one month before the back exam starts. However the regular
class duration is 90 days as per IOE calendar, the teacher student contact hours is very less due to
back paper exam set at the mid of regular semester. Even after completing the back exam, students
enter into the assessment examination as a regular process which also disturb the regular classes.
Due to this situation, it seems as if student won't be mentally prepared for the regular class and
teacher-student's contact hour is not sufcient, however the calendar mentions the sufcient days
according to university rule. These kinds of disturbances at the mid of the semester is impacting
the regular exam leading to increase of failure rate. The concept of back exam in the middle of
semester was introduced since 2009 with the objective that student's pass rate shall be increased if
IOE can take back exam as early as possible after completing regular exam because it is expected
that students with fresh mind shall be able to pass the exam. But Fig. 2 depicts the current scenarios
where the objective is not achieved. If IOE is able to conduct such kind of back exam immediately
after completing regular exam before the regular class starts, the objective shall be achieved but
unfortunately the ECD could not conduct the back exam of previous semester immediately after
completion of its regular exam. Hence restructuring the exam system is expected to reduce the
fail rate in the regular semester. Practically, the back exam is hampering the regular classes and
lab activities. Reforming the semester exam as per depicted in Fig. 4, i.e. If the back exam slot is
moved behind the regular exam, the disturbances in the regular exam will be minimized with the
sufciency of teacher-student contact hours and the students would fully focused on the regular
exam which shall be helpful to increase the pass percentage. After completing the regular exam,
only the back paper students will remain focus in their back exam while the regularly passed
students shall enjoy their free time planning for next semester classes.
Bajracharya et al.
80
Fig. 4: Reformed Semester and Exam Structure of IOE
4.2 Strategy for Quality Intake during the Admission
Looking into the admission status of year 2016AD (2073BS), the admitted quantity below the
score 50 is comparatively high while gure 1 already relates the status of low score students in
their semester result. The important thing is that the students in the entrance score range 50 to
60 are higher in value who are missed in the admission. If IOE catch those higher rank students,
admission count of lower rank (below 50) students shall be minimized. Moreover, this would help
to increase the pass percentage in the semester exam.
Looking into the table of gure 5, objectively IOE should nullify the admission of the students
having score below 50. But the total admission seats of IOE is 3712 which is not fullled by the
students having score above 50 even if IOE considered the missed students. This indicates that IOE
has to attract more applicants in the entrance exam so that higher scorer shall be increased for the
quality intake in the admission. Government should follow one window system providing equal
opportunities [1] to all students who are interested towards engineering education in Nepal. Hence,
an appropriate engineering education policy has to be formulated that helps to reduce brain drain
and attract students to study engineering education within the nation.
Fig. 5: Entrance and Admission status of IOE students in the year 2073BS (2016AD)
4.3 Academic Environment and Facilities of IOE Constituent Campus & Afliated Colleges
Among four constituent campuses and ten afliated colleges; Pulchowk Campus is the rst ranked
institute with respect to physical facilities, qualied faculties, and student's quality while other
constituent campuses are considerably better due to the government investment in its development.
The limited physical resources, limited faculties (fresh graduates as a faculty) and prot oriented
activities are the major factors that affect the quality education that are to be well addressed by IOE
itself in some of its afliated colleges.
Restructuring Examination System of Institute of Engineering for Establishing Center of Excellence in ...
81
Bajracharya et al.
4.5 Syllabus Structure and Teaching/Learning Process at IOE
Due to the rapid change in teaching/learning paradigm world-wide with the proper use of ICT in
the learning process, the world's education system is highly modernized while IOE is supposed to
be still following the traditional teaching/learning activities. The existing syllabus structure and
subjects has to be revised into the suitable one that must adapt with the modern day education
requirement. Uniformity in the pattern of syllabus content and structure, automation in the
examination activities, proper training and regular workshop for the faculty and staffs, suitable
performance appraisal system for faculty and staffs, research oriented class room learning
environment, timely review of the syllabus, continuous regulation/monitoring of the academic
environment etc. are also needed to be considered for the proper and standard quality education as
a consequence, the pass percentage and the quality graduates shall be increased at IOE.
5. Conclusion
It is basically review of the key performance index of maintaining quality in the engineering
education and analyzing the major factors that affect the pass percentage in the semester result of
IOE. Besides several factors, it is expected that restructuring of the semester exams, automation
in examination activities, uniformity in syllabus pattern and improvement in teaching/learning
paradigm are the major factors that improve the quality in the engineering education and increase
the pass percentage in semester exam result of IOE. Looking into the past and current activities, IOE
is continuously improving its academic environment by establishing Excellency in its BE/BArch
& M.Sc. Entrance examination as well as admission system, proceeding towards automation in
the semester exam and web based resource management, revision of syllabus structure, increasing
the establishment of research centers, encouraging the faculties towards research are some of the
additional activities of IOE that are aimed at improving the quality and achieve the standards of
world class education in Nepal.
Acknowledgement: This research was supported by Institute of Engineering, Dean's Ofce under
the mission “Reform of Institute of Engineering" with its regular grants on “Steps towards Excellent
Academic Environment at IOE".
References
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Available: https://www.researchgate.net/prole/Babu_Dawadi/contributions
[2] Dawadi BR and Baral DS (2017), Towards Automation in the Admission Process as a Tool
to Enhance Quality of Engineering Education at Tribhuvan University, Journal of Institute of
Engineering, 13(1), Article in the press.
[3] Joshi RR and Joshi M (2015), Quality Assurance in Engineering in Nepal: Issues and
Challenges, 7th International Forum on Engineering Education (IFEE2015)", University of
Sharjah, UAE.
[4] Kulkarni P (1999), Quality in Engineering Education, Journal of Engineering Education, 10-
25.
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Education of Nepal, Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 7(1) :1-11.
[6] Natrajan R (2000), The Role of Accreditation in promoting Quality Assurance of Technical
education, International Journal of Engineering Education, 16(2) : 85-96.
