Engineering Accreditation

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Engineering Accreditation
Deborah Wolfe, P.Eng. July 18, 2008
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Todays Presentation

• Introduction
• Collaboration between Canada and Costa Rica
• Engineering for the Americas
• Caribbean Project
• Questions

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Engineers Canada

• Federation of 12 provincial and territorial
  engineering regulators
• Represents the profession at the national and
  international levels
• Accredits university engineering educational
  programs
• Prepares national criteria and guidelines

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Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board

• Created by Engineers Canada in 1965
• Membership
• 15 volunteers, all ing./P.Eng.
• Range of disciplines and backgrounds from across
  Canada
• Rely on specialist volunteers during program
  evaluation visits
• Main Responsibilities
• Identify programs whose graduates are prepared
  to enter the profession of engineering
• Develop accreditation criteria, processes,
  procedures
• Quality assurance
• Continuous improvement

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Accreditation Results

• Over 250 accredited programs
• 40 post-secondary institutions
• Over 70 fields of study
• 55,000 students
• 10,500 graduates per year

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Collaboration between Canada and Costa Rica1993
- present
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How did it start?

• February 1993
• CFIA and the School of Engineering of the
  University of Costa Rica (UCR), organized the
  first Pan American Symposium on the evaluation
  and accreditation of the engineering programs,
  under the sponsorship of UPADI.
• This seminar was attended by CEAB members.

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January 1994

• Canadian engineers, ABET, started a CIDA funded
  project for the accreditation of engineering
  programs in Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Mexico,
  Peru with the objective to
• Assist in the creation and promotion of national
  accreditation systems in five Latin American
  nations, thus providing the basis and expertise
  to create the accreditation systems for the
  engineering programs in all Latin American
  countries.
• Each country followed its own path in their
  accreditation processes.
• Only Costa Rica maintained close liaison with
  CEAB.

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November 1996

• A Workshop was held to prepare the first version
  of the guidelines for the accreditation of
  engineering and architectural programs
• The final document of this Workshop proved to be
  essential for all the subsequent versions of the
  accreditation criteria in Costa Rica.
• In addition, in 1997 the CFIA approved the
  creation of the Accreditation Commission, in
  charge of establishing a specialized
  accreditation agency for engineering and
  architecture.

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September 1998

• At the request of the CFIA, a pilot project was
  implemented for the evaluation of the Civil
  Engineering program at the University of Costa
  Rica by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation
  Board.
• UCRs Civil Engineering Program was deemed
  substantially equivalent to a CEAB accredited
  program in 1999.
• Discussions in Canada during this time frame
  resulted in a commitment to assist Costa Rica
  with developing their own accreditation system

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Substantially Equivalent Programs

• Universidad de Costa Rica
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical Engineering
• Industrial Engineering

• Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica
• Construction Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Industrial Maintenance Engineering
• Industrial Production Engineering

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In Costa Rica

• 2004
• CFIA and SINAES (Costa Rican National
  Accreditation System) signed a joint cooperation
  agreement. SINAES was created in 1999 at the
  initiative of Costa Rican universities and was
  officially recognized in 2002.
• 2005
• An addendum to this agreement sets forth the two
  accreditation initiatives (CFIA-SINAES), and
  establishes the AAPIA (Accreditation Agency for
  the Engineering and Architecture Study Programs).
• AAPIA is based on CEABs accreditation criteria
  and procedures for Engineering study programs and
  these, in turn, are complemented with additional
  national criteria.

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2008

• For the first time, AAPIA-SINAES invited all the
  Engineering and Architecture study programs to
  participate in the accreditation processes.
• The first evaluation visit shall take place in
  September.
• The work started in 1993 is coming to fruition!

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Future Plans

• A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between
  the Canadian Engineers and the CFIA laying out
  our future relationship and continue cooperation.
• The participation of the CEAB members is
  anticipated during the first evaluation visit of
  AAPIA-SINAES.
• Intent to negotiate a mutual recognition
  agreement, once the Costa Rican accreditation
  model has been fully implemented.