January/February 2018

Communities: Education
Revised ABET Criteria Will Prepare Students for the Future of Engineering

To ensure engineering students are ready for a changing profession and world, the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET has approved new requirements for baccalaureate programs.

After an eight-year, multistep process, the changes to EAC’s general criteria were finalized in fall 2017 and will be implemented beginning in the 2019–20 accreditation cycle.

Revisions have been made to the introduction and definitions that apply to all parts of the general criteria; the criterion on student outcomes; and the criterion on curriculum.

As ABET Executive Director and CEO Michael Milligan, P.E., explains, the EC2000 standards had previously changed the emphasis of program evaluation from what was being taught to what students were learning. However, “as with any disruptive transformation, not everything was straightforward, and elements of the outcomes criterion lacked specificity” and were interpreted in a variety of ways.

The recent revisions attempt to provide clear definitions for key terms such as “complex engineering problems,” “engineering design,” “engineering science,” and “team” to ensure consistency in interpretation.

“Early feedback suggests the new definitions will be helpful to programs around the world seeking ABET accreditation,” says Milligan.

The revisions also include changes to curriculum specificity, he adds.

NSPE actively contributed to the process. For example, the Society’s Position Statement No. 1752 recommended additional engineering education outcomes that were not previously included in ABET’s baccalaureate-level general criteria, including the ability to analyze risk and uncertainty and to apply project management principles.

In the revisions, the concept of considering risks and making tradeoffs was incorporated into the definition of engineering design, and project management principles were included in the criterion on student outcomes.

ABET requested feedback from stakeholders and released the proposed changes for formal public review twice as the revision process proceeded.

NSPE provided ABET with input on drafts of the revised criteria along the way. Most recently, in January 2017, NSPE strongly advocated for a place in the curriculum for teaching the value of engineering licensure. Though this specific recommendation was not incorporated, input regarding the need for collaborative and diverse teams was largely embodied in the final criteria.

Says Dennis Truax, P.E., F.NSPE, the Society’s representative to the EAC, “NSPE worked closely with other society representatives and ABET to come up with an implementable, comprehensive set of criteria appropriate for the diversity of educational options available to 21st-century students around the world. While the criteria may not be everything we wanted, they still establish a strong standard for engineering education, which, in turn, provides one of the three foundations for licensure.”

View the criteria and learn more about implementation at abet.org.