Abstract
The EURopean ACredited Engineer (EUR-ACE) project (2004/06) formulated Framework Standards for the European Accreditation of Higher Education Programs in Engineering. The EUR-ACE accreditation system is now being implemented. The European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education has been established to run the system and six agencies have been accredited and have started awarding the EUR-ACE label in six countries (France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, and UK). Contacts are also in progress with accrediting agencies outside the European Higher Education Area.
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Notes
- 1.
The US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) was the first agency to shift in the late 1990s from a primarily input-based to a mainly outcomes- and performance-based accreditation with their so-called Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000). The ABET philosophy is dealt with in detail in the chapter “Quality Assurance in the Preparation of Technical Professionals: The ABET Perspective” by Peterson.
- 2.
The third cycle (doctoral studies) has been recently introduced in the Bologna process but is not yet considered in any accreditation scheme.
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Acknowledgments
The support by the DG “Education and Culture” of the EC through the projects EUR-ACE (2004–2006), EUR-ACE IMPLEMENTATION (2006–2008), PRO-EAST (2006–2007), and EUR-ACE SPREAD (2008–2010) is acknowledged. The author is also grateful to the many people, Institutions and Associations that have contributed to the EUR-ACE projects and are now collaborating with ENAEE, and in particular to the co-authors of Augusti et al. (2007, 2008) from which this paper draws heavily.
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Augusti, G. (2009). EUR-ACE: The European Accreditation System of Engineering Education and Its Global Context. In: Patil, A., Gray, P. (eds) Engineering Education Quality Assurance. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0555-0_3
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