Curriculum design and development of higher forestry education in Malaysia

Curriculum design and curriculum development are procedures closely linked to the learning courses, refinement and quality assurance of an academic program by a higher education provider (HEP). Good curriculum design and development can help the university to plan optimal resources utilization, easy review, monitor and audit by the agency. It is also to ensure that the curriculum is well balanced, full but not overload, flexible, progressive, student-centered, focused on learning, easy monitoring and planning and increase graduates employability. In Malaysia, the curriculum design and development of an academic program follow the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF). It is an instrument that develops and classifies qualification based on set of criteria that are approved nationally and benchmarked against international best practices, clarifies earned academic levels, learning outcomes of the study areas and credit system based on student academic load. These criteria are accepted and used for all qualifications awarded by recognized higher forestry education providers. Hence, the design and development of higher education integrates learning outcomes and links with Bloom's taxonomy, namely the cognitive, psychomotor/practical/technical skills, and effective domains. The learning outcomes include 1) knowledge, 2) practical skills, 3) social skills and responsibilities, 4) values, attitudes and professionalism, 5) communication, team and leadership skills, 6) problem solving scientific skills, 7) information management and lifelong skills, and 8) managerial and entrepreneurial skills. Current issues on forestry such as climate change, biodiversity conservation, forest values, rural poverty, deforestation, international conventions, illegal logging, globalization, stakeholders' needs and so forth are included in the curriculum through various courses identified as part and partial of the curriculum development. Other requirements in the curriculum design and development include soft skills (communication, critical thinking and problem solving, team work, lifelong learning and information management, entrepreneurial skills professional ethics and moral and leadership skills), student learning time, market survey, humanities research project, industrial training, and co-curriculum and basic science courses. The university is doing its best to design and develop a forestry curriculum that meets the needs of government agencies and industries. This is to ensure that forestry graduates have sufficient knowledge, skills and right attitudes to the job market. As such, it will contribute to long term goal in sustainable management of forest resources at the national and global levels.