A016 Fire safety engineering

Fire safety engineering: Comparison of a new degree programme with the model curriculum

Brief:

The curriculum design of a new degree programme in Building Services Engineering with Fire Engineering Specialism for the local fire engineering professionals in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is reported. The programme was approved by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and offered in September 1997 with an intake of 25 students per year. The aims are to train fire engineers who can handle not only ‘traditional’ fire engineering systems, but also perform the ‘new’ procedure of fire safety engineering hooked up with the development of ‘performance-based fire codes’ in an ‘engineering approach’. Subject contents to be included in a fire safety engineering degree programme are proposed. A comparison of this new scheme with the model curriculum in Fire Safety Engineering is made. Coverage of topic areas on fire engineering and teaching hours are compared. Differences in the curricula have been identified and discussed.

Further information:

Chow WK, Wong LT, Chan KT, Fong NK, Ho PL, 1999. Fire safety engineering: Comparison of a new degree programme with the model curriculum, Fire Safety Journal 32(1) 1-15.