Requirements, challenges and consequences in accreditation of engineering programmes

Accreditation has been considered the principal quality assurance mechanism and an important aspect of engineering education. It provides opportunities for change in both the curriculum of the programme and the pedagogy of delivery. However, the starting point is with staff to acquire educational knowledge applicable to engineering education. It is argued that accreditation could indeed be an opportunity for a change with positive consequences for the institution, faculty, department, curriculum, academic staff, students and industry, and discusses the challenges during the accreditation process. The objective of this paper is to review the paradigm shift from teaching to learning and how adjustment of a curriculum to a particular accreditation criterion affects the stakeholders. It is acknowledged that accreditation may provide benefits in educational and organizational quality improvements as it encourages awareness of the best practices, increases public confidence and ensures institutional accountability. However, it also entails some inherent challenges such as additional costs, increased staff workload, uncertainty regarding its effectiveness and possibly organizational concerns. Accreditation creates opportunities for change; including the fundamental adjustment in the curriculum of the programme. However, a key element is staff trained to apply educational knowledge and principles for engineering education, which is usually deficient in faculty members. A successful shift in the educational paradigm needs an understanding of the rationale for the outcomes-based educational approach and philosophy as well as the concept of attributes and non-conventional pedagogy.