Are Australian and American Engineering Education Programs the Same? The Similarities and Differences between Australian and American Engineering Accreditation Procedures
- Conference
- Location
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Atlanta, Georgia
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2013
- Start Date
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June 22, 2013
- End Date
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June 22, 2013
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topic
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ASEE International Forum
- Page Count
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14
- Page Numbers
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21.14.1 - 21.14.14
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--17219
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/17219
- Download Count
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531
Paper Authors
Scott Grenquist Wentworth Institute of Technology
Scott Grenquist is currently performing Sabbatical Research in interdisciplinary, project-based-learning techniques at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and The University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is also concurrently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. Scott received his doctorate from Curtin University of Technology in Perth, WA, Australia, his MSEE and BSME from The University of Notre Dame, and his BA in Modern Languages (Japanese) also from The University of Notre Dame. Scott has worked in Elementary Particle Physics at The University of Notre Dame, taught Mechanical Engineering Technology at Purdue University, taught Physics at The University of Newcastle in Australia, taught Engineering and performed research at The Instructional Software Development Center at The University of Missouri-Rolla and has taught Electrical Engineering at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston for the past 15 years.
Roger G. Hadgraft
RMIT University
orcid.org/0000-0002-0480-7456
Roger Hadgraft
BE(Hons), MEngSc, DipCompSc, PhD
is Innovation Professor in Engineering Education in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at RMIT University. He is a civil engineer with 20 years involvement in leading change in engineering education, with a particular focus on problem/project-based learning (PBL), at RMIT, Monash and Melbourne Universities. Roger is an ALTC Discipline Scholar in Engineering and ICT, having co-developed the draft national academic standards for the discipline. He is currently Program Director for the Bachelor of Sustainable Systems Engineering and also works on curriculum issues across the College of Science, Engineering and Health at RMIT. He is a passionate advocate of national and international cooperation in engineering education, particularly the sharing of best-practice learning materials.
Abstract
Are Australian and American Engineering Education Programs the Same? The Similarities and Differences between Australian and American Engineering Accreditation Procedures AbstractOne of the principal objectives for engineering education accreditation standards throughout theworld is to maintain the international quality of our engineering graduates. However, most of theworld's engineering education accreditation guidelines are administered by organizations that areregulated at the national level. At many steps in the Australian and United States accreditationprocesses there are similarities between the engineering education accreditation standards andprocedures administered by ABET in the United States, and by The Institution of Engineers inAustralia. But, there are also many differences. This paper is a comparative study that assessesthe major differences and similarities between the two different engineering educationaccreditation infrastructures in Australia and the United States. Although in many cases therequired standards for the graduate are very similar, the methods by which those standards areassessed throughout the course of accreditation processes differs substantially. The applicationfor accreditation, the accreditation assessment procedures and the duration of accreditationtenure are all different between the two countries, and yet similar in structure. In both countries,the accreditation process is primarily directed at assuring the competence of graduates from alladministered education providers. Accreditation is also a domestic requirement for ProfessionalEngineering domestic certification and licensure in both Australia and the United States. Due tothe focus of engineering education accreditation regulatory bodies being focused on nationalissues, certification and licensure, the broader picture of international standards of engineeringaccreditation received less attention. There are multiple accords that allow for reciprocalrecognition of Professional Engineering certification and licensure throughout the industrializedworld. But, the standards and procedures of the engineering education accreditationinfrastructure are not standardized at the international level. This paper analyzes thosedifferences in engineering education accreditation procedures between two countries that havewell-developed engineering education systems, namely Australia and the United States.
Grenquist, S., & Hadgraft, R. G. (2013, June), Are Australian and American Engineering Education Programs the Same? The Similarities and Differences between Australian and American Engineering Accreditation Procedures Paper presented at 2013 ASEE International Forum, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--17219
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