Ministry of Education

Blueprint for National Exit Examination to be held in

2015 E.C

Band: One

Program: - Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering

Compiled By: Zenamarkos Bantie (PhD) - BDU

January, 2023
Bahir Dar
Ethiopia

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Contents
1. Introduction...................................................................................................................................3
2. Significance of Test Blueprint Preparation....................................................................................4
3. Expected Profile of the Graduates.................................................................................................4
4. General Objective..........................................................................................................................5
5. Specific Objectives........................................................................................................................6
6. Themes and List of Courses...........................................................................................................6
7. Share of the Themes/Courses/Items in Percentage (%)..................................................................8
8. Conclusions.................................................................................................................................10

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 1. Introduction
Graduates performance and overall understanding of chemical engineering profession needs
to be assessed to assure that students meet graduate profiles and the program learning
outcomes. All the universities in Ethiopia have a series of fixed exams as graduation
requirements for their students. Exit exams at the end of a bachelor academic track are
recently being implemented by some programs by their own initiation. Currently, ministry of
education intends to set and implement exit examinations for all undergraduate programs at
national level. Furthermore, exit exams are intended to assist students to prepare themselves
to pursue their postgraduate studies in more challenging programs successfully. In this
context, the need of exit examination is inevitable in assessing of student’s skill, attitude and
knowledge attainments in chemical engineering program just after completing education
program requirements. Exit examination is not intended only for the sake of graduation
fulfillment, rather it also changes students mind setup for better academic achievement, to
secure more industrial jobs, reduce the differences among different programs at different
universities, and set standards in the evaluation systems. Consequently, quality education will
be ensured and common getaway for the professional license and equal market opportunity
will be created for all graduates from different universities.

Currently, about 20 public universities in Ethiopia are running chemical engineering

program. Among them, 18 universities put into effect nationally harmonized chemical
engineering curriculum. The remaining two science and technology universities developed
their own curricula and are implementing them which are slightly deviated from the
aforementioned one. These discrepancies pause challenges in the process of national exit
examination preparation as far as courses and their themes considered. Due to this fact, 17
common compulsory courses were identified from both curricula and competency areas were
determined as indicated below.

The aim of this document is to set the blueprint of the exit exam which assists the preparation
of the exam items from the identified courses which are matched to the competencies and
learning outcomes of the program.

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 2. Significance of Test Blueprint Preparation

Preparation the exit exam blueprint for chemical engineering program is aimed to assist the
preparation of the exam that is representative, broadly sampled, and consisting of complete
knowledge domain expected from chemical engineering students on completion of their study
program. Specifically, the exit exam blueprint helps to:

 Facilitate the construction of a representative and balanced exam items for the
selected courses in accordance with the competencies identified.

 Guide the experts who develop/prepare the exam to set appropriate exam items
with proper share among the identified courses, course themes, learning
outcomes, and competencies.

3. Expected Profile of the Graduates

Graduate profile is a description of attributes (knowledge, skill and attitude) which the
program aspires for its students to be attained. In line with this conceptual framework
chemical engineering program has more or less the same graduate profiles as it is drawn from
three different curricula. Chemical engineering program has the following key occupational
tasks and responsibilities that should be attained by graduates.

 Involving in the plant layout, design, construction and operation of industrial plants.
 Conducting economic and technical feasibility studies of chemical and process
industries,
 Modeling process, design and evaluation by using appropriate computer programs,
 Designing, testing and commissioning processes, equipment and plants.
 Managing troubleshoots and solving problems to optimize the production processes;
 Overseeing the construction, modification, operation and maintenance of pilot plants,
processing units or processing plants;
 Acting as liaison between plant engineering personnel and equipment suppliers.

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  preparing tender document, bid evaluation, coordinating the industrial construction
projects;
 Ensuring efficient, optimum, safe and environmentally responsible plant operation;
establishing and conducting quality control programs; operating and assessment
procedures and control strategies to ensure consistency and adhere to standards;
 Frontally work with control and instrumentation specialists, supervision of and
cooperation with other engineering personnel;
 Participating and advising industry and governmental bodies regarding environmental
policies and standards;
 Teaching undergraduate Chemical Engineering Courses and assisting advanced
courses.
 Working in multidisciplinary environment as well as - especially under the conditions
of globalization-in international cooperation or business;
 Coordinating research and development activities;
 Working in sustainable energy technologies and energy optimization systems;
Generally Chemical Engineering graduates should have basic scientific, technical, ethical,
communication and leadership skills wherever they work and pursue their further study

4. General Objectives of the Program

Chemical Engineering graduates are well equipped for a wide variety of positions as
practicing chemical engineers or for graduate studies in engineering and scientific disciplines.
The program encourages continued learning and professional development by providing the
proper knowledge and stimulation in a setting that promotes personal growth. The main
objectives of the program include:

1. Provide students with a high quality education that will enable them to adapt to a
rapidly changing technical environment.
2. Produce graduates who will be productive throughout their careers in a wide range of
industrial, professional, and academic environments.
3. Develop graduates with strong sense of ethics, professionalism, and the ability to
succeed as both individual and team contributors.
4. To produce qualified Chemical Engineers who are instrumental in the development of
the industrial sector of the country.
5. To carry out research in line with the development needs of the country.

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 6. To provide consultancy and technical services to the industrial sector and other
socioeconomic sectors of the country.
7. To produce technically sound and practically competent engineers of global standard.
8. To train professionals equipped with relevant knowledge and skills, who would
contribute to the development of the country.

5. Specific Objectives
The specific objectives are very specific statements that describe exactly what a student will
be able to do in some measurable way. There may be more than one measurable specific
objectives defined for a given competency. The specific objectives identified for Chemical
Engineering Program are presented below:

1. Apply knowledge of basic science, engineering fundamentals and chemical

engineering principles to solve complex engineering problems.

2. Identify, formulate, and analyze complex chemical engineering problems to design

their solutions, develop systems and processes that meet specified needs with
appropriate consideration for public health, safety, and environmental considerations
using principles of science and chemical engineering.

3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of engineering management principles

and economic decision-making and apply them to manage projects in multi-
disciplinary environments.

4. Recognize the need for, and have the preparation and ability to engage in,
independent and life-long learning in the broadest context of technological changes in
chemical engineering profession.

6. Themes and List of Courses

The courses to be considered for the exit examination have been selected in view of the two
different curricula. Based on this, seventeen courses have been selected to be considered for
the exit examination. The major categories of the courses are basic sciences and engineering,
reaction engineering, industrial processes and their control, environmental engineering, and
engineering design. The themes for the courses have been set by considering the learning
outcomes of the program and the contribution of each course for the learning outcomes.

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Hence, the courses considered for the exit exam are categorized as themes of chemical
engineering basics, chemical and biochemical reaction engineering, transport phenomena and
separation processes, process industries, environmental engineering, process control, and
chemical engineering design. Table 1 below presents the list of courses to be considered for
the exam and the mapping of each course to the themes.

Table: 1 List of course with their themes.

S/N Course Name Course Theme

1 Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering
2 Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics I
3 Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics II
Chemical Engineering Basics
4 Mechanical Unit Operations
5 Fluid Mechanics for Chemical Engineers
6 Chemical Reaction Kinetics
Chemical and Bio-chemical
7 Chemical Reactor Design
Reaction Engineering
8 Fundamentals of Biochemical Engineering
9 Thermal Unit Operations
Transport phenomena and
10 Heat and Mass Transfer
separation processes
11 Mass Transfer Unit Operation
12 Basic Environmental Engineering Environmental Engineering
13 Process Industries
14 Process Dynamics and Control Process industries and Control
15 Fluid Machines in Chemical Engineering
16 Chemical Engineering Apparatus Design Chemical Engineering Design
17 Plant Design and Engineering Economics

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 7. Share of the Themes/Courses/Items in Percentage (%)
Number Cognitive

Psychomotor
Weight of of test

Affective
Understand

Apply
Remember

Analyze

Evaluate

Create

Total
Learning Objective Credit course or items
Themes Course Name
outcomes s hour proportio from
n each
course
Fundamentals of Chemical
Engineering 1 1, 8 3 3/15 = 0.20 4 1 1 1 1 4
Chemical Engineering
Chemical Thermodynamics I 1 1, 8 3 3/15 = 0.20 4 1 1 1 1 4
Engineering Basics Chemical Engineering
Share = (15/51)*70 Thermodynamics II 1 1, 5, 8 3 3/15 = 0.20 4 1 1 1 1 4
= 20 Mechanical Unit
Operations 1 1, 4, 7, 8 3 3/15 = 0.20 4 1 1 1 1 4
Fluid Mechanics for
Chemical Engineers 1 1, 8 3 3/15 = 0.20 4 1 1 1 1 4
Theme one total credit 15 3 5 4 5 3 0 0 0 20
Chemical and Bio- 1, 2, 4, 5,
Chemical Reaction Kinetics 2 7, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 1 1 1 1 4
chemical Reaction
1, 2, 4, 5,
Engineering Chemical Reactor Design 2 7, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 5 1 1 1 1 1 5
Share = (9/51)*70 Fundamentals of 1, 2, 4, 5,
= 12 Biochemical Engineering 2 7, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 1 1 1 1 4
Theme two total credit 9 0 2 3 3 2 2 1 0 13
Transport 1, 2, 4, 5,
phenomena and Thermal Unit Operations 2 7, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 1 1 1 1 4
separation Heat and Mass Transfer 2 1, 5, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 1 1 1 1 4
processes
Share = (9/51)*70 Mass Transfer Unit 1, 2, 4, 5,
= 12 Operation 2 7, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 5 2 1 1 1 5

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 Theme three total credit 9 1 2 4 3 2 1 0 0 13
Environmental
Engineering 1, 2, 5, 6,
2 3/3 = 1
Share = (3/51)*70 Basic Environmental 7, 8
=4 Engineering 3 4 1 1 1 1 4
Theme four total credit 3 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 4
Process industries 1, 2, 3, 4,
& Control Process Industries 4 5, 6, 7, 8 3 3/6 = 0.5 4 2 1 1 4
Share = (6/51)*70 Process Dynamics and
=8 Control 2 1, 8 3 3/6 = 0.5 4 1 1 1 1 4
Theme five total credit 6 0 3 2 2 1 0 0 0 8
Chemical Fluid Machines in
Chemical Engineering 3 2, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 1 1 1 1 4
Engineering
Chemical Engineering 1, 2, 3, 4,
Design Apparatus Design 3 6, 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 2 1 1 4
Share = (9/51)*70 Plant Design and 2, 3, 4, 6,
= 12 Engineering Economics 3 8 3 3/9 = 0.33 4 2 1 1 4
Theme one total credit 9 0 1 5 3 3 0 0 0 12
Total for the program 51 4 14 19 17 12 3 1 0 70

N.B.:
1. The numbers on the learning outcome column correspond to the numbering of the specific objectives (learning outcomes) indicated on page
number 6.

2. The numbers on the objectives column correspond to the numbering of the general objectives of the program indicated on page numbers from
5 to 6.

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 8. Conclusions

If implemented effectively, exit examinations can have a vital role in improving academic
programs quality and effectiveness. Furthermore, it can create the platform for cooperation
among academic programs at different universities to work jointly to improve the program
quality. In view of this, this document is produced to assist the preparation of the exit exam items
for chemical Engineering program which are illustrative, broadly sampled, and consisting of
complete knowledge domain of the program. It helps to set exam items which are balanced based
on the graduate profiles, competencies identified and major learning outcomes of the program
from the selected courses with appropriate shares based on their weighting. The shares of the
course themes, the weight of each course in each theme, and the number of exam items from
each course have been determined.

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