Master of Agro-Industrial Engineering (M-AIE) Program

ABOUT PROGRAM

Cambodia is known as agricultural country. We produce many raw material of agriculture resources, yet the country is not having enough human resources to turn those raw agricultural resources into standardized products yet. To address these issues, this program is designed to provide students with technical skills, competencies and expertise in the field of agro-industrial engineering which they can added value to the raw agricultural resources, thereby contributing to agricultural development and innovation, it will be our primary mission. As a graduate of Agro-industrial Engineering with the knowledge, student will acquire about science and engineering, food technology and business management, they will be capable of designing, executing and evaluating important agro-industrial projects. We will also inspire them to have an innovative, entrepreneurial spirit and an interest in the science and technology employed in food processing.

The Master of Agro-industrial Engineering (M-AIE) is a 54- credit multidisciplinary degree program, intended for students who have completed undergraduate degree in science and engineering, specialized in food science and technology, chemical engineering, and agriculture. M-AIE is modified its program to be more internationally and competency by develop its curriculum up to date and standardized base on the requirement of the skill needs from current job market competency in the field of agro-food industry by locally, regionally and globally. This modification program also established a double degree program with Kasetsart University of Thailand which the modification will be 100% approve and parallels with Kasetsart university’s program. The program has two pathways, research base and course research base program. The course requirement is categorized into Core Course, Elective Course, Specialized Course and Research Oriented Course. The program is designed to train the master students learn not only technical skills but also management capacities with critical thinking following the requirement of educational quality framework of Cambodia for higher education in science and engineering. The students will learn some courses of soft skills including entrepreneurship, and project management. To maintain our good educational quality and professionalization, the students will be required to conduct a professional internship at public or private institution which is working on their related field. On the other hand, instead of internship at public or private institution, the student can choose to do research work with their adviser at ITC/Kasetsart (for double degree) if needed. To graduate, for course research base program, the students are required to pass research proposal and then write the thesis and pass the thesis defense which will be evaluated by thesis evaluation committee and get approval from all juries. The topic of thesis must be composed based on the works for professional internship or research at ITC and it needs to be specific and agreed by adviser. Other course requirement needs to be completed for graduation. For research base program, the students are required to complete some requirement credit from course works, pass primary research report defense, pass the detailed research proposal defense, participate by presenting research work in scientific conference, publishing their research work in national or international journal, and then write the thesis and pass the thesis defense. For dual degree program, the student has to fulfill the requirement of graduate requirement of Kasetsart university and ITC graduate requirement.

JOB OPPORTUNITY

After graduation from Master of Engineering of Agro-industrial Engineering, students can have job opportunities as below:

01

Private sector such as laboratory manager; production manager, technical consultant in agro-product processing, or entrepreneur in an agro-processing company.

02

Governmental institutions such Ministry of Education, Youths and Sports, Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Commerce – Department of Cam Control, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of Environment

03

Non-governmental organizations working the agro-industry related fields.

04

Pursuing research or Ph.D. programs in the agro-industry related fields.

Program Structure

Based on the educational qualification framework of Cambodia, for master degree program of engineering, the students are required to pass 45 to 57 credits. The credit requirement for the program needs to be complied with the qualification framework of ministry of education youth and sport. The structure of the program consists of core course, elective course, specialized course and research oriented course. Number of credits requirement in each course categories is different between Plan A (Course-Research Based) and Plan B (Research-Based). However, the total minimum requirement for the number of credit is set to be 54 credits which is the same for both Plan A and Plan B.

This master’s degree will accept the applicant from two categories which are ITC students and non-ITC students. ITC students referring to those who graduated Bachelor of Engineering degree from ITC with Faculty of Chemical and Food Engineering or Faculty of Geo-resources and Geotechnical Engineering. Non-ITC student refers to those who graduated bachelor’s degree from other university/institute aside from ITC but their background must be in the field of science and engineering related to food science and technology, chemical engineering, agriculture engineering, and chemistry and biological Science and engineering.

In order to strengthen the research activity particular in the research unit Food Technology and Nutrition and encourage the student to involve with research as young researcher initiative, the program needs to divide into Plan A and Plan B. Plan A is referred to “Course-Research Based pathway” while plan B is referred to “Research-Based pathway”. The requirement of academic plans is described as the following:

1. Plan A (Course-Research Based Pathway)

The total credit requirement is 54 credits. It includes 42 credits of coursework (minimum requirement based on qualification framework is 33 credits) and 12 credits of research thesis.
Professional Internship at a professional institution or at ITC with advisor.
1 year for ITC student with his/her minimum grade-point average (GPA) greater than 2.5 (C+) on a 4.0 scale, and 2 years for non-ITC students or ITC students with his/her GPA between 2.5 and 2.0.
For double degree with Kasetsart University, both ITC and non-ITC students have to enroll at least 2 years in which 1 year in Cambodia (for course-research work) and 1 year at Kasetsart university (only research work). The eligibility to enroll in the program unless her/his minimum grade-point average (GPA) greater than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Summary of credits

Core courses 8 credits
Specialized courses 16 credits
Elective courses 8 credits
Research oriented courses 10 credits

Research activities

Presentation in scientific conference Required (No credits)

Research thesis 12 credits

2. Plan B (Research-Based Pathway)

The total credits requirement is 54 credits. It includes 12 credits of course work (minimum requirement based on qualification framework is 12 credits) and 42 credits for research.
1 year for ITC student with his/her minimum grade-point average (GPA) greater than 2.5 (C+) on a 4.0 scale and 2 years for Non-ITC students and ITC students with his/her GPA less than 2.5
Full-time research student at ITC/ KU (for double degree)
For double degree with Kasetsart University, both ITC and non-ITC students have to enroll at least 2 years which 1 year in Cambodia and 1 year at Kasetsart university. The eligibility to enroll in the program, unless her/his minimum grade-point average (GPA) greater than1 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Summary of credits

Specialized courses 6 credits
Elective courses 2 credits
Research oriented courses 4 credits
Research activities

Primary research report and defense 9 credits

Detailed research proposal defense 3 credits

Graduate seminars 3 credits

Presentation in scientific conference 3 credits

Publication 6 credits

Research thesis 18 credits

Program’s Requirements

Master of Agro-industrial Engineering is a full-time graduate program developed for all nationalities from all over the world. To be eligible for the program, an applicant must hold a BSc. /BEng Degree or equivalent and also meet the requirements of the Graduate School. The applicants can be ITC student or non-ITC student which details below:

ITC

The students who graduated from ITC with the faculties listed below will start at M2 if her/his GPA greater than 2.5, but will start from M1 if his/her GPA less than 2.5.

Faculty of Chemical and Food Engineering

NON-ITC

An applicant must hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in the field of science and engineering such as field of science and engineering related to food science and technology, chemical engineering, agriculture engineering, and chemistry and biological Science and engineering. However, the applicant will be assessed case by case. The additional courses will be required for the applicant who found to be lack of basic course of this engineering field.

LIST OF COURSES

Core Course

1. Project 1 on Agro-product processing and simulation

2. Agro-product processing and factory design and simulation and modeling in agro-process

3. Bio-refinery Process

4. Industrial Symbiosis

5. Postharvest management of agro-product

Research-oriented Course

1. Research Methodology

2. Seminar on agro-industrial Engineering I

3. Seminar on agro-industrial Engineering II

4. Project 3 in Agro-industrial Engineering

5. Applied statistic in agro-processing

Elective Course

(Course from I4 and I5 of Bachelor’s degree of GCA faculty)

Specialized Course

1. Project 2 on Product Innovation and Entrepreneurship

2. Product Innovation and Entrepreneurship

3. Agro-products quality and safety, and risk management

4. Bio-industry

5. Cold chain logistic and management

6. Agro-products supply chain

7. Agro-products laws and certification system

8. Agricultural-waste processing and management