Quality Assurance and Enhancement

Quality Assurance Framework

The ECE Department strives to ensure the quality of our program, in particular:

The design and delivery of courses, programs and complementary out-of-class educational experiences;
The evaluation and progression of students; and
Academic advising and mentoring.

To ensure that the quality and academic standards of our educational provision are being maintained and improved, we have set up various committees including UG Circle Committee, UG Curriculum Committee, UG Student Affairs Committee, UG Staff-student Liaison Committee, PG Committee, and ECE Advisory Board.

The UG Student Affairs Committee meets twice every semester to discuss student matters, such as admissions, academic activities, counseling, and co-curricular activities such as competitions, internships and seminars. Our UG Curriculum Committee also meets 2-3 times every semester to review our courses and curriculum. Faculty members in these committees review feedback collected from students and instructors and propose necessary follow-up actions.

Annual Reports about our UG and PG quality assurance policies and practices, results of student feedback, and other measures of departmental performance are submitted to the School of Engineering for review.

Self-validation

Throughout their studies, students are requested to complete a set of surveys to collect their feedback on course arrangement, workload and their program experience, including:

Intake Survey
First Year Experience Survey (FYES)
Student Engagement and Satisfactory Questionnaire (SESQ)
Course Evaluation
Exit surveys for Taught Postgraduate and Research Postgraduate students

The survey results are discussed in the UG Circle Committee, UG Curriculum Committee and the PG Committee. Any necessary action items will be carried out by members in the corresponding committees.

External Review and Feedback

Our programs are recognized by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). Graduates from our programs with honors will be deemed to have satisfied the educational requirement for Corporate Membership of HKIE.

We have annual meetings with the ECE Advisory Board, which consists of experts from the industry and academics from top local and international universities. They provide valuable suggestions on our research strategies and UG and PG programs for us to better match the industry’s needs. We also invite selected companies to join the annual ECE Final Year Project (FYP) Industry Day to look at some of our FYP demonstrations for students to gain useful advice from the industry perspective.

Enhancement of Teaching and Learning

The Center for Engineering Education Innovation (E2I) was established by School of Engineering in 2010. Through various high-quality learning and development programs and activities, E2I aims to foster a learning culture by developing and sharing good practices in learning and teaching, assessment, and quality assurance. The Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching (CELT) is an academic support unit which strives to nurture a collaborative and creative learning environment through partnerships with departments, faculty, other teaching staff and students.

Student Feedback

ECE student representatives meet twice every semester with our faculty in the UG Staff-student Liaison Committee meetings, to share with us the feedback they collected from classmates and any comments they have about the Department. In addition, faculty advisors meet with students in advising courses ELEC2910/3910 at least twice every semester to solicit feedback and help students with any problems they might be facing.

We often organize friendly informal gatherings with students, such as UG Orientation Dinner, hiking trips, barbeques, and tea gatherings to help us build a closer relationship with our students. Our faculty members also actively join the activities organized by the ECE Students’ Society, such as Annual Dinner, Graduation Dinner, and badminton competitions. These events provide excellent opportunities for students to share their feelings and feedback about the Department in a casual manner. Furthermore, we have set up Facebook groups (HKUST Dept of ECE page and ECE@HKUST group) for students to freely ask questions and express their views. Our administrative staff will help answer questions and forward any comments to relevant committees for their discussion.

Internship and Employer Feedback

We encourage students to undertake internships to gain work experience before graduation. All ECE students in the 4-year curriculum will be automatically registered in ELEC1991 Internship Experience. Students are required to submit an internship report to review their learning outcomes, and employers are required to give feedback to let us know the level of competency of our students.

Alumni Feedback

Every year we organize an alumni dinner for the graduating class. Our graduates fill in a survey to let us know how they think of our curriculum, which areas are particularly useful for their career, and which areas may need to be further strengthened. The results are discussed in the UG Circle Committee and necessary follow-up actions are carried out in corresponding committees. Alumni are also invited to join the HKUST ELEC Alumni Facebook group to keep in touch with us and let us know if they have any comments for our Department