Curricula have important effects on students' professional skills. To prepare for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), countries are recommended to implement new curricula to develop new competencies for the automation workforce. As Information technology (IT) lays the foundations for the core 4IR-relevant emerging technologies (big data, internet of things, artificial intelligence, etc.), countries have developed new IT engineering curricula to prepare engineers for the 4IR. By conducting a structured focused comparison for bachelor IT curricula containing core 4IR modules of 57 Vietnamese and 35 Malaysian universities, this research aims to find appropriate approaches in developing curricula to prepare 4IR competencies for IT engineering students for Malaysia, Vietnam and implications for other nations. The research found that, only new stand-alone curricula with a focus on 4IR competencies can prepare engineers for the 4IR. It then provides seven lessons for designing new 4IR engineering curriculum and for continuing studies on 4IR-ready curriculum.
The higher education responding to the fourth industrial revolution (referred as "university 4.0") in this study is identified as a model of innovation – driven smart university. Here, the innovation is the philosophy, object as well as solutions for growing university’s values; while the concept of smart means the infostructure and technical conditions for running the teaching and learning activities based on advancements of 4.0 technologies. The core features of the innovation - driven smart university are described in the so-called "543" model, which consists of: entrepreneurial education (model “5 in 1”); innovation – driven academic researches; innovative ecosystem (model “4 in 1”); smart university; operating mechanism (model “3 in 1”); int ernationalization and community responsibilities. The framework with criteria for the "university 4.0" model in accordance with quality assurance and university ranking approaches has been developed. Indicators for meeting these criteria can be used by universities for benchmarking themselves to QS 4-star standards or Top 200 universities in QS Asia university ranking table.
Keywords: University 4.0, smart university, innovation-driven university, innovative ecosystem, start-up, entrepreneurial spirit, cyber - physical system.
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