Document Type : Scientific - Research
Author
Professor of Geo-Engineering,College of Engineering, University of Tehran
Abstract
Professional ability can be considered as a complex relationship between the three concepts of knowledge, skill, and attitude. Therefore, an engineering education program should educate graduates, who in addition to having enough knowledge of engineering concepts, also have skill and ability in communication, teamwork, self-learning and have the right attitude toward the social, economical, and environmental contents of engineering and continuous education. In order to assess the graduates’ preparedness to encounter the realities of the job market, every engineering education program, in addition to its defined objectives, should have a system for assessment of the program’s outcomes; i.e., to what extent those objectives were fulfilled. In Iran, despite the considerable increase in the number of educational institutions and diversity of course programs within the last two decades, a similar attention has not been paid to the independent assessment of educational programs and their products, i.e., the graduates. Following the establishment of the Engineering Education Association of Iran in 2009, executing a mechanism for accreditation of Iran’s engineering education programs became a priority in the action plan. With this mindset, the Organization for Accreditation of Iran’s Engineering Education is founded. The target accreditation process of this organization consists of two phases of internal and external assessment. Internal assessment is conducted by the educational institution and according to the predefined criteria. External assessment is conducted by the accreditation organization, and measures the amount of engineering education outcomes and program’s quality improvement with the consideration of the internal assessment report. This paper presents a mechanism for the execution of the accreditation process of Iran’s engineering education programs, including internal and external assessments.
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