Background

The Faculty of Built Environment (FBE) offers five undergraduate professional programmes tailored to meet the nation's construction and real estate sectors' manpower needs. All these programmes are accredited on the national and international levels. For example, our Bachelor of Science in Architecture has been accredited as Part I by the Board of Architects Malaysia (LAM) while our 2-year Bachelor of Architecture program leads to Part I recognition by the Board. The same programmes have also been accredited by the Royal Institute of British Architecture (RIBA, UK), leading to Part I and Part II, accreditation respectively. RIBA’s recognition is considered an achievement as it is the first programme in Malaysia to be recognised by RIBA and one of the four universities in East Asia.

The faculty’s Bachelor of Building Surveying, Bachelor of Estate Management and Bachelor of Quantity Surveying have all earned their respective accreditations from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS, UK). The same programmes have been recognised by the respective local Professional Bodies.  Bachelor of Urban & Regional Planning was introduced as a professional programme inline with the requirement of the Board of Town Planners Malaysia and Malaysian Institute of Planners. The programme obtained the approval from the Ministry of Higher Education in March 2011, with the students intake of 2011/2012 as its pioneer batch.

Despite the fact that the faculty is quite ‘young’ as compared to other established schools in the country, nonetheless, it has managed to attract the best achievers from high schools and matriculation centres. This is well reflected by the high entry point requirements needed for candidates to be considered for intake. Some of our students have proudly shown their tremendous achievements and competitiveness by winning numerous awards and medals both locally and internationally.

The FBE runs experiential cross-cultured learning programmes with two renowned universities, i.e., the University of Southern California (USC), the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Kyung Hee University, South Korea. These programmes are useful in providing international exposure and networks for the participating students. The joint-studio programme with USC started a while back in 1998 while the same programme began with NUS in 2005. Students who have participated in both of the programmes learned a lot about what it takes to be on the right route to become a professional architect.

Some of the faculty’s graduates are employed in different parts of the world such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia. Thus, the faculty is at the forefront of training students with a high degree of international recognition in tandem with national aspirations of creating ‘Globalised Malaysians’.

The FBE offers post graduate programmes by research as follows: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Master of Science (Architecture), Master of Science (Building) and Master of Science (Estate Management). The Faculty of Built Environment also offers two (2) postgraduate research programmes namely Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Built Environment and Master of Built Environment. Apart from that, Master of Real Estate, Master of Project Management, Master of Facilities and Maintenance Management, and Master of Architecture are offered by coursework. Few more postgraduate programmes are still in the pipeline.
 
The challenges faced by the faculty in the oldest and most prestigious university in the nation has inspired us to be regarded as a centre of excellence in the development and dissemination of knowledge and professionalism in the fields of the built environment, both nationally and regionally.