Spotlight on Accreditation

The ASIIN-FIGURE Global Conference 2021 "Digitalisation – Innovation – Competitiveness in the Post-Covid Era: European and Global Higher Education reinventing itself"

The Sydney Accord was pioneered by the Engineering Council of the UK (ECUK) and signed in 2001, and recognizes the equivalency of degrees for engineering technologists or incorporated engineers in the signatory countries. It supported the global professional role of engineering technologists as part of broader engineering teams.

Engineers Canada is in the process of developing a benchmarking report to understand the various types of accreditation systems, and determine how the Canadian engineering accreditation system compares. The organization seeks to understand both the current landscape and the future possibilities in engineering education.

Times Higher Education (THE) recently ran an article, “Science editor: scrap top US accreditor to widen student outlook,” suggesting that accreditation guidelines developed by the US accrediting body, ABET, hinder well-rounded strategies to fight major social burdens. The article calls for the “abolition of the top US accreditor of science and engineering programs.

As programs in engineering, engineering technology, and computing change or expand, accreditation of new programs also evolves. A recent trend is the accreditation of cybersecurity programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, which is increasing globally in the computing realm. As more and more universities offer these degrees, accrediting bodies have reacted by developing accreditation standards.

The ENAEE General Assembly recently approved a document outlining standards and procedures which agencies authorized by ENAEE to award the EUR-ACE® label should follow when performing transnational accreditation, and the accreditation of international double or joint degrees. The document, signed in September 2020, notes that ENAEE favors the extension of the EUR-ACE system outside the European Higher Education Area.

In India, declines in admissions for engineering programs impact ranking and accreditation because the accrediting agencies consider the intake of students for calculating faculty ratios, not enrollments. Some universities are trimming their intake to have better ranking and rating points.

The Lima Accord is a multilateral agreement amongst Latin American and Caribbean organizations that are responsible for the voluntary accreditation of undergraduate engineering programs within their respective jurisdictions. Signatories are committed to the development and recognition of good practices in the delivery of engineering programs.

A new document, “An Overview of Accreditation of Higher Education in the United States,” was recently released by the Congressional Research Service, and reviews the current state of accreditation in the United States. It looks at best practices in the accreditation process and gives insight into the various types of accreditation (regional, national, and programmatic) available in the United States.