Course Structure

The Electrical & Communications Engineering Course Structure

The Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUoT) has a corporate vision “to grow world-class technocrats by 2024 and beyond”, and to fulfill this mandate, major academic reforms involving course review and design to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and the process for achieving full accreditation of its engineering programs through the Washington Accord started in 2015 and is in progress.

As part of this reform, the PNGUoT Academic Board (AB) passed a resolution for four (4) subjects per semester with the view that less number of subjects per semester will encourage in-depth coverage of the subject material. Thus, the School of Electrical and Communications Engineering (ECE) proposed to restructure its course to include 4 subjects by eliminating duplications and similarities in common subjects that will ultimately help to produce graduates with desirable graduate attributes. Furthermore, in the pursuit of the accreditation mandate, and to satisfy the requirements of the accrediting body, the Institution of Engineers Australia (EA), the School has undergone major academic reforms. These include:

Department/Program Name Change

The name of the degree program has now changed from Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering to Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical).

Majors Offering

The name change now makes it possible for the ECE department to offer one degree with two majors;

  • Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) – Communications
  • Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) – Power


  • The names of the majors will not be displayed on the degree. The degree will just be “Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical)”. However, the details of the majors will be displayed on the Transcript only.

    The majors are defined through Elective Subjects as defined in the “Changes to Other Existing Subjects and Schedule” and available in the 3rd year of the program. Table 1 gives the listing of all subjects with Elective subjects given in Tables 2 and 3 for Year 3 and Year 4 respectively.

    Defining Majors

    A student taking the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering is required to take 8 subjects per year made up of core subjects and electives, especially in the 3rd and 4th years of the program. A major is defined by a total of 6 electives for each major. Two electives (one in each semester) are to be offered in 3rd year and four electives (two in each semester) are to be offered in the 4th year.  Thus in 3rd year, a student must take 6 core subjects and 2 electives and in 4th year, students must take 4 core subjects and 4 electives. Thus, for a major, students must take the following subjects:

    Year 1: All core subjects

    Year 2: All core subjects

    Year 3: Semester 1, 3 core subjects + 1 elective A subject, semester 2, 3 core subjects + 1 elective B subject as shown in Table 2.

    Year 4: Semester 1, 2 core subjects + 2 Elective C subjects, Semester 2, 2 core subjects + 2 Elective D subjects as shown in Table 3.

    The elective subjects are available during the specific semester and may require a prerequisite. Moreover, elective subjects are specific to a major and students must only take a combination of subjects specific to that major.

    Table 1: ECE Course Structure

    YEAR 1 Semester 1 Semester 2
    EN111 Engineering Practice and Sustainability
    EN121 Engineering Mathematics II
    EN112 Engineering Mathematics I
    EN122 Engineering Mechanics
    EN113 Materials and Properties
    EN123 Introduction to Circuits and Electronics
    EN114 Engineering Computation
    EN124 Introduction to Engineering Design
    YEAR 2 Semester 1 Semester 2
    EN211 Computer-Aided Design
    EN221 Engineering Modelling (Including Statistics & Probability)
    EN212 Engineering Maths III
    EE221 Digital Logic Systems
    EE211 Electromagnetic Theory
    EE222 Analog Electronics and Circuits
    EE212 Programming in C
    EE223 Circuit Theory
    YEAR 3 Semester 1 Semester 2
    EE311 Signals and Systems
    EN321 Project Management and Economics
    EE312 Electrical Measurement and Instrumentation
    EE321 Communications Systems
    EE313 Electric Machines
    EE322 Electrical Integrated Design
    Part A Elective
    Part B Elective
    YEAR 4 Semester 1 Semester 2
    EN411 Research Project A (Research Skills)
    EN421 Research Project (B)
    EE411 Control Systems
    EE421 Instrumentation & Process Control
    Part C Elective I
    Part D Elective I
    Part C Elective II
    Part D Elective II

    Table 2: Year 3 Electives

    Part A (SEMESTER 1) PART B (SEMESTER 2)
    EE314 Data Communications and Networking
    EE323 Mobile Communications
    EE315 Electrical Power Systems I
    EE324 Electrical Machine Drives Control

    Table 3: Year 4 Electives

    Part C (SEMESTER 1 - POWER) PART C (SEMESTER 1 - COMMUNICATIONS)
    *EE413 Embedded Systems Design & Interfacing
    *EE413 Embedded Systems Design & Interfacing
    *EE417 Digital Signal Processing
    *EE417 Digital Signal Processing
    EE414 Electrical Power Systems II
    EE412 Information Theory
    EE415 Power Electronics I
    EE416 Microwave and Optical Systems
    Part D (SEMESTER 2 - POWER) PART D (SEMESTER 2 - COMMUNICATIONS)
    *EE425 Renewable Energy
    *EE425 Renewable Energy
    EE424 Electrical Power Systems III
    EE422 Computer Networks Design
    EE426 Power Electronics II
    EE423 Network Security
    EE427 Antennas and Radars

    Professional Work Experience

    For a student to graduate with a Bachelor of Engineering, she/he must accrue a minimum of 60 days (480 hours) of Professional Work Experience (PWE). A separate subject code is assigned for this subject.

    EN000 Professional Work Experience

    A grade of Satisfactory is given on completion of this subject with submission of a Reflective Journal including a Reflective Report detailing the tasks undertaken. Both the journal and the report will have to be signed by the field supervisors and academic staff coordinating the PWE programs. The students are issued the PWE Reflective Journal in Year 1 to complete the required hours of industrial experience.