Abstract:

Nowadays, and as never before, undergraduate engineering programs are in constant evolution. Such reality calls for periodic adjustments in various scales, with the objective of improving student learning. In that context, international academic accreditation becomes a suitable way to ensure that continuous improvement is achieved within the program.

The Civil Engineering program at ESPOL University in Ecuador received an ABET initial accreditation in November 2016, a process that demanded 3 years of prior preparation in different areas, including, but not limited to: Program Educational Objectives, student outcomes, faculty and staff, facilities, and institutional support. Furthermore, continuous revision of the Program Educational Objectives includes the active participation of representatives from the private and public sectors, as well as members of local professional associations.

Noteworthy, all observations and concerns from the first accreditation were incorporated gradually towards the following reaccreditation. Although the program underwent two major curricular revisions in between the two accreditation processes (2016 and 2019), such events were as an opportunity to strengthen and renew formative activities towards both academic knowledge, and the enhancement of students’ skills. Faculty credentials and infrastructure facilities (e.g. labs) were maintained and improved, notwithstanding financial constraints (being a public university). Finally, institutional support, proved to be a key factor, not only in terms of logistics, but also for significantly influencing the aforementioned accreditation aspects. As a cycling process, improvement demands continuous efforts from all the stakeholders, in order to establish a roadmap based on lessons learned from previous accreditation processes.

The accreditation process resulted in more extracurricular involvement of students with new technologies, research, academic clubs and engineering. Strategies were lined up to support student chapters and strengthen the ties with the industry. Moreover, continuous faculty training, through a systematic pedagogical and technical program was implemented. Outreach and capstone projects were strengthened by emphasizing real problems and providing integral engineering solutions to the problems presented by both public and private organizations. During this process, program authorities worked with the Advisory Board made up of industry and CE program representatives, as well as alumni, to review the student outcomes and identify areas for future improvement.

This bond revealed that a successful accreditation process requires the commitment and involvement of faculty and staff, along with adequate infrastructure and effective institutional support, in order to ensure the academic success of the student body. For that reason, this work aims to share the benefits of implementing an undergraduate program accreditation system in an engineering program at a public university, as a tool for continuous improvement, based on the experiences faced by the faculty throughout the recent years.

Keywords:

Continuous improvement, academic accreditation, strategies, student outcomes,  institutional  support.