MEM (Master of Engineering Management)

The Masters programmes (Masters of Engineering M. Engg. and Masters of Engineering Management MEM) has been approved and operational since 1989 and 2011 by NED University of Engineering & Technology and as per the HEC policy.

Postgraduate Programme (Master of Engineering Management) 

• MEM Day Programme 
• MEM Evening Programme 
• MEM Weekend Programme

Background

Environmental Management draws its knowledge across a spectrum of disciplines – the natural, social and medical sciences, the humanities and engineering. Environmental Management has the potential to play a pivotal role in the financial, social and developmental pace of a country. It aims to maintain a harmonious relationship between the environment and human society and in its approach to this, adopts a holistic and  interdisciplinary stance. The growth of interest in Environmental Management started since the late 1990s. It reflects a widely held perception of accelerating environmental deterioration caused by the pressure of human activities, as evidenced by worsening problems of pollution and the destruction of natural landscapes and habitats. Understanding and management of air, water and land resources require that a wide range of inter-disciplinary perspectives should be included in the curriculum.

Justification

Improving the quality of life of citizens is the main policy objective of socio-economic development in all countries of the world. Hitherto most countries have been attempted to achieve this by formulating and implementing development plans without any serious effort to integrate environmental considerations into the process. However, in order to ensure that human activities interfere only to an acceptable degree with the functioning of life support systems or natural ecological processes, environmental management and planning is now becoming an increasingly important imperative in the rapidly growing liberalised world economy.

Pakistan, a developing country is presently on the pace of urbanisation. Increasing population and industrial growth in turn result in an increase in environmental pollution. Solutions to mitigate environmental pollution lie in the awareness and proper management of environmental resources. Environmental management is a key to identify, monitor and control the environmental problems. In order to manage the environmental problems trained and qualified manpower is required. Generally, personnel dealing with environmental management problems in Pakistan are not qualified in this area. The Environmental Management Programme at NED University provides an opportunity to train the existing manpower and to provide fresh graduates having master’s degree in the Environmental Management.

Some of the broad objectives of the programme should be to equip students and future environmental managers with the ability to:

• Understand the concepts of the environment and pollution;
• To understand the linkage between environmental management and other relevant areas;
• To provide knowledge, skills and understandings of rapid evolution of environmental problems, together with greater public awareness and concern;
• Acquire an overview of both development planning and environmental planning;
• Understand the need for the various actors and the public to participate in both environmental planning and management of environmental health and gain an insight into their respective roles in the participatory process;
• To provide confidence to bring the environmental problems at government and management level;
• To help the controlling authorities to develop more credible environmental planning and management systems;
• Establish a link between development, environmental planning and environmental management.

Course Structure

The course combines a set of key subjects that contain information on the nature of environmental problems together with engineering techniques for their solution. This is supplemented by management and policy subjects to empower the engineer, or technical specialist, to lead multidisciplinary teams working in the field of Environmental Engineering.

The course has been designed from a combination of degree courses being offered by 18 well reputed universities and academic institutions around the world. Overall, the courses listed below have been selected from various internationally acclaimed universities, keeping in mind the background of potential students in Karachi, Pakistan.

1. Environmental Systems Engineering will equip the student with a clear concept of environmental engineering as a base. The knowledge of environmental engineering is vital to the successful implementation of environmental management principles. The course has been adopted from that being offered by Middle East Tech. University, Ankara, Turkey.
2. Environmental Quality Management will introduce the student to the heart of environmental management and will cover all the basic grounding needed for a successful grasp of the core concepts. This course has been adopted from the programme being offered by AIT, Bangkok, Thailand.
3. Civil Systems and the Environment is an amalgamation of civil and environmental engineering and will be of benefit to those with a background or interest in the application of civil engineering to environmental management. This course has been adopted from the University of Toronto, Canada.
4. Environmental Risk Assessment will equip students with the importance of environmental impact assessment (which is of a growing stature in the fledgling field of environmental management in Pakistan). The course has been adopted from New Mexico Tech., USA.
5. Environmental Law and Policy Development will equip students with an understanding of laws and policies related to the field of Environmental Management and give an insight into the practical implementation of such policies for the benefit of Pakistan’s ailing environment. This course has been adopted from the National University of Singapore.
6. Ecology and Sustainability is a course based on the popular concept of “sustainable development”. The impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment and how it can be modified for the benefit of the ecology (basically the natural environment) is the core theme of this course. This course has been adopted from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
7. Waste and Pollution Management is based on the waste management principles of environmental pollution in general. Several state-of-the-art technologies will be taught in this course to equip students with the latest developments in the fields of waste management and subsequently waste minimisation. This course has been adopted from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
8. Water Quality Management is based on the management of natural and artificial water resources for the benefit of Pakistan and borrows some of its concepts from Quality Management principles. This course has been adopted from New Mexico Tech., USA.
9. Principles of Air Quality Management is based on the management and maintenance of the quality of the ambient air. This is of vital importance to Pakistan considering the enormous amount of air pollution being generated by various industries and automobiles throughout the country. This course has been adopted from the University of Maryland, USA.
10. Water and Sanitation Infrastructure in Developing Countries is an important topic considering the mismanagement of the sanitation infrastructure of Pakistan. Students will be equipped with core concepts of infrastructure planning, development and management and will also focus on case studies with examples from Pakistan to improve their understanding of the subject. This course has been adopted from M.I.T., USA.

Benefits of Degree

This program is designed to enable engineers and other technical specialists to take a leadership role in the field of Environmental Engineering. Increasing demand of environmental management personnel will be congregated with the graduates of this program. Career options of potential graduates from Environmental Management include positions in government agencies or private corporations, or as consultants. Concerned departments such as the Health, Safety and Environment would also benefit from having educated managers in this respect.

Eligibility

First class degree is required in the fields of Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Textile and other allied engineering disciplines.

For a complete list of courses offered for the programme, click here.