CHINA'S PARADIGM FOR ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

China has developed an infrastructure for engineering and engineering technology education which, the undergraduate level, nearly surpasses the output of the rest of the developed world combined. This tiered system ensures that technical education is available to all levels of achievers entering the post secondary educational system. The relative autonomy of each institution lends itself to creative educational programs, mergers and cross-disciplinary studies. At issue, though, is whether the program objectives and outputs are measurable and in keeping with the demands of an exploding industrial workforce. The absence of a dedicated engineering accreditation entity has produced a mixed bag of results, some of which are discussed in this paper. An outline of the engineering educational organization will be presented first. This will be followed by an assessment of the flexibility of Chinese educational institutions to structure their own programs. A case study of SHNU’s engineering progams will be presented. Finally, a critical examination of the pros and cons of an accreditation body in this environment will be discussed.