Resumen de Requirements, challenges and consequences in accreditation of engineering programmes

Jacek Uziak, M. Tunde Oladiran, Magdalena Walczak, Julio Vergara García, Mabel Muñoz Ilabaca

• Accreditation has been considered the principal quality assurance mechanism and an important aspect of engineeringeducation. It provides opportunities for change in both the curriculum of the programme and the pedagogy of delivery.However, the starting point is with staff to acquire educational knowledge applicable to engineering education. It is arguedthat accreditation could indeed be an opportunity for a change with positive consequences for the institution, faculty,department, curriculum, academic staff, students and industry, and discusses the challenges during the accreditationprocess. The objective of this paper is to review the paradigm shift from teaching to learning and how adjustment of acurriculum to a particular accreditation criterion affects the stakeholders. It is acknowledged that accreditation mayprovide benefits in educational and organizational quality improvements as it encourages awareness of the best practices,increases public confidence and ensures institutional accountability. However, it also entails some inherent challenges suchas additional costs, increased staff workload, uncertainty regarding its effectiveness and possibly organizational concerns.Accreditation creates opportunities for change; including the fundamental adjustment in the curriculum of theprogramme. However, a key element is staff trained to apply educational knowledge and principles for engineeringeducation, which is usually deficient in faculty members. A successful shift in the educational paradigm needs anunderstanding of the rationale for the outcomes-based educational approach and philosophy as well as the concept ofattributes and non-conventional pedagogy.