Promotion and sustainability of quality assurance in engineering education through academic and professional accreditation

Abstract

Engineering accreditation is a fiduciary requirement for academic institutions to meet certain educational standards during the period of registration of such institutions. The status of accreditation should be continuously monitored to ensure that those standards are maintained. The authors opine that accreditation enhances quality and sustainability of engineering education. The totality of quality and sustainability of engineering education includes the provision of adequate resources, supply of well qualified applicants from lower-level schools, availability of robust academics, design and delivery of excellent curricula, graduation of students who are registrable by professional bodies and employable by public and private sectors of the economy. However, sustainability in engineering education extends to other dimensions, mainly its integration of curricula and also professional development. Accreditation ensures that qualifications meet quality assurance standards and requirements, establishes a mechanism for verifying qualifications and learning outcomes and articulation strategies. All of these measures can create long term trust in qualifications and enhance movement of learners and graduates across national boundaries