Enhancing Educational Excellence: A Continuous Improvement Model for Accreditation Success

Miguel X. Rodriguez-Paz; Israel Zamora-Hernandez; Jorge A. Gonzalez-Mendivil; Luis Horacio Hernandez Carrasco

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Technical Session 3
Tagged Division: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)
Page Count: 16
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/56409
Download Count: 1

Paper Authors

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Miguel X. Rodriguez-Paz Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM) orcid.org/0000-0002-9975-9847

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Prof. RodrÃguez-Paz got his B.Sc. In Civil Engineering from Tecnologico de Oaxaca in 1993. He studied a M.Sc. In Structural Engineering at Tecnologico de Monterrey and got his Ph.D. from the University of Wales at Swansea in 2003 where he did research on

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Israel Zamora-Hernandez orcid.org/0000-0002-3978-4637

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Israel Zamora-Hernández has a B.Sc. in Electronic Engineering from the Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico. He has a M.Sc. in Digital Systems from Tecnologico de Monterrey, currently collaborating with this university since 2004 holding different positions and responsibilities, among which stand out; the creation of the electronics laboratories in 2005, assuming the direction of the Electronic Engineering and Communications degree in 2006, the creation of the networks laboratory in 2007, the creation of the media center laboratories in 2008, assuming In the same year the position of director of academic programs, which included the career directorates, the admissions directorate and the marketing directorate of the Campus. His work especializes in attracting new students to STEM programs at University level. In 2017, he took the position of career director of Engineering in Innovation and Development and in 2019, the Industrial and Systems Engineering direction was added. Based on this trajectory, an educational channel was created in which academic topics, vocational guidance, and university promotion, among others, upload. He is currently part of a group of research professors in educational innovation, allowing him to publish in SCOPUS conferences.

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Jorge A. Gonzalez-Mendivil Tecnológico de Monterrey

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Master in Sciences with an speciality in Quality Systems and Industrial and Systems Engineer by ITESM in Mexico, twenty years of experience in engineering education, several projects in innovation of engineering education such as the use of 3D virtual amb

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Luis Horacio Hernandez Carrasco P.E. Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM)

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Civil Engineer
Master degree in Structural Engineering
Master in Business Administration
Full time professor at (Tec de Monterrey) ITESM
Professional Registered Engineer in Structural Design

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Abstract

In a globalized world, where mobility of professionals is ever more frequent and accessible, higher education institutions face the challenge of educating students with programs that are accredited internationally. Accreditation processes are not only based in academic excellence, but in the development of competencies and skills that allow graduates perform in a very competitive environment. Many Higher Education Institutions consider very important to be accredited with international standards. In this context, the Washington Agreement (WA) plays an important role by certifying that universities and their graduates may be recognized by other nations. By having an accreditation universities can make sure that their graduates have the necessary competences defined for each program and in agreement with the WA. For our university, xxxx, the accreditation of its Engineering programs is done through the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET). In Mexico there is a similar institution that works closely with ABET, that is the Accreditation Board for Engineering Education, a civil association (CACEI). In order to get to the ABET accreditation programs must first fulfill the national requirements of CACEI. In both accreditation boards there are certain fundamental criteria that allow institutions to comply with the Washington Agreement standards. These criteria include aspects such as the credentials of the academic personnel, the syllabus for each program, infrastructure, services as well as the processes for admission of new students. Furthermore, special attention is given to the integral accompaniment of students throughout their studies and the follow-up to the graduates, so that there is a continuous improvement of the competencies (outcomes) and the program educational objectives for each accreditation board. One of the main recurring challenges in an accreditation process is the documentation and evidence gathering for all the criteria. Sometimes, institutions face difficulties during this process because they lack well established processes for the documentation of all evidences throughout the period to be evaluated during an accreditation visit. This document presents a continuous improvement model designed to facilitate the academic follow-up of any academic program, allowing a detailed observation of each key performance indicator (KPI), its analysis and the implementation of measures for the overall improvement of the academic program. This model offers a clear structure for such documentation, and also, the development of some tools for the better visualization and analysis of the academic KPIs. This model has been successfully applied to three Engineering programs in our institution: Industrial and Systems Engineering, Computational Technologies Engineering and Mechatronics. The accreditation boards for the three programs were the Mexican CACEI and ABET, all during 2024 with very positive results in each accreditation, reducing significantly the observations from the evaluation committee when compared to previous accreditations. We present the results of our model in each of the accreditation processes so that other institutions in other countries might use it as a starting point for their own programs that subjected to accreditation.

Citation
Format

Rodriguez-Paz, M. X., & Zamora-Hernandez, I., & Gonzalez-Mendivil, J. A., & Hernandez Carrasco, L. H. (2025, June), Enhancing Educational Excellence: A Continuous Improvement Model for Accreditation Success Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/56409

TY - CPAPER
AB - In a globalized world, where mobility of professionals is ever more frequent and accessible, higher education institutions face the challenge of educating students with programs that are accredited internationally. Accreditation processes are not only based in academic excellence, but in the development of competencies and skills that allow graduates perform in a very competitive environment.
Many Higher Education Institutions consider very important to be accredited with international standards. In this context, the Washington Agreement (WA) plays an important role by certifying that universities and their graduates may be recognized by other nations. By having an accreditation universities can make sure that their graduates have the necessary competences defined for each program and in agreement with the WA.
For our university, xxxx, the accreditation of its Engineering programs is done through the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET). In Mexico there is a similar institution that works closely with ABET, that is the Accreditation Board for Engineering Education, a civil association (CACEI). In order to get to the ABET accreditation programs must first fulfill the national requirements of CACEI. In both accreditation boards there are certain fundamental criteria that allow institutions to comply with the Washington Agreement standards. These criteria include aspects such as the credentials of the academic personnel, the syllabus for each program, infrastructure, services as well as the processes for admission of new students. Furthermore, special attention is given to the integral accompaniment of students throughout their studies and the follow-up to the graduates, so that there is a continuous improvement of the competencies (outcomes) and the program educational objectives for each accreditation board. One of the main recurring challenges in an accreditation process is the documentation and evidence gathering for all the criteria. Sometimes, institutions face difficulties during this process because they lack well established processes for the documentation of all evidences throughout the period to be evaluated during an accreditation visit.
This document presents a continuous improvement model designed to facilitate the academic follow-up of any academic program, allowing a detailed observation of each key performance indicator (KPI), its analysis and the implementation of measures for the overall improvement of the academic program. This model offers a clear structure for such documentation, and also, the development of some tools for the better visualization and analysis of the academic KPIs. This model has been successfully applied to three Engineering programs in our institution: Industrial and Systems Engineering, Computational Technologies Engineering and Mechatronics. The accreditation boards for the three programs were the Mexican CACEI and ABET, all during 2024 with very positive results in each accreditation, reducing significantly the observations from the evaluation committee when compared to previous accreditations. We present the results of our model in each of the accreditation processes so that other institutions in other countries might use it as a starting point for their own programs that subjected to accreditation.
AU - Miguel X. Rodriguez-Paz
AU - Israel Zamora-Hernandez
AU - Jorge A. Gonzalez-Mendivil
AU - Luis Horacio Hernandez Carrasco P.E.
CY - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DA - 2025/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Enhancing Educational Excellence: A Continuous Improvement Model for Accreditation Success
UR - https://peer.asee.org/56409
ER -