Trans-national recognition and accreditation of engineering educational programmes in Europe: recent developments

The “Bologna Process”, started in 1998/99 with the Sorbonne and Bologna Declarations and now involving 40 countries, aims at establishing by 2010 the “European Higher Education Area”, based on “a system of easily readable and comparable degrees”. The actual implementation of this process and its relevance for the European labour market requires a convergence also of the accreditation procedures of educational programmes, that are still very different from a European country to the other.

After defining the term “accreditation” in the context of the formation of engineers, this paper will discuss the present situation of accreditation of engineering educational programmes in Europe, and present some examples. The contribution of the Thematic Network E4 will be illustrated, and the most recent developments, aiming at a European-wide accreditation system, will be introduced.     

Accreditation of engineering education: review,observations and proposal for global accreditation

In engineering education, the accreditation and assessment of academic programmes is vital in order to maintain the quality and the status of engineering graduates, and hence the technical workforce. Results of a survey of the relevant literature and observations indicate that various accreditation models have been developed regionally, as well as internationally but most of these models seem to be non-uniform, too complex, non-transparent and, moreover, non-precise. This leads to confusion and growing concerns about the mutual recognition and global mobility of the engineering profession. As a result, there is an urgent need for a systematic global model of engineering accreditation that can be used to assess global professional skills and attributes of engineering graduates. The aim of the current paper is to present a brief review of existing accreditation systems implemented in engineering education worldwide as well as to describe the methodology for developing a global accreditation model in engineering education. Various existing accreditation models in engineering education are briefly discussed in this paper and the strengths and weaknesses of these models are outlined and presented. The need for the global accreditation model has been justified and the methodology for the development of the model is outlined with its advantages listed in the paper.     

博洛尼亚进程后欧洲工程教育专业认证的发展研究——以欧洲工程教育认证网络为例

博洛尼亚进程对欧洲高等工程教育专业认证产生了重要的影响,本文以欧洲工程教育认证网络(ENAEE)及欧洲工程教育专业认证(EUR-ACE?)体系的出现和发展为切入点,分析了其历史、背景、组织结构、认证标准,及其与欧洲各国工程教育专业认证之间的关系,并将EUR-ACE?认证体系与华盛顿协议进行了比较,发现EUR-ACE?体系在欧洲层面建立起了一种分散式的第一阶段和第二阶段统一的认证体系。EUR-ACE?体系既强调灵活性和兼容性,又努力保证各国的多样性。     

英国高等教育认证制度的形成

为了理解英国高等教育认证制度的今天和明天的变革,本研究聚焦于该制度的形成.英国高等教育认证制度模式是"立法创制、行政独立".在一种教育生产函数理论的指导下,我们还发现,英国高等教育认证制度形成的主要因素是它的文化传统、政治和国际环境等因素.     

Accreditation system for technical education programmes in India: A critical review

This paper gives an overview of the Indian technical education system with regard to both its quantitative and qualitative scenario and upholds the value of accreditation in quality improvement and quality assurance of educational programmes. The paper presents a comparison of accreditation systems being followed in some important countries, including India, that are signatories or provisional members of Washington Accord. It also looks into the reasons of the sparse level of accreditation work completed by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) since its inception. While mentioning strengths of the NBA accreditation system, the paper points out some shortcomings in the policy, self-assessment questionnaire, criteria, weightage assigned to criteria and rating scheme followed by NBA. Some important recommendations have also been made to render the accreditation system more effective and acceptable to various stakeholders of the technical education sector in India.     

国际医学教育认证的发展与现状

医学教育认证作为医学教育质量的外部审核机制,其理念和做法已得到广泛认同。国际社会通过加强国际和区域间合作、建立和完善国家级认证体系、召开国际性论坛和研讨会、提供认证相关的培训项目、建立全球性的信息数据库等一系列举措,着力推进认证工作的规范开展。由于不同国家和地区在认识、资源和政策导向等方面的差异,全球医学教育认证制度和体系仍然呈现多元化的格局,认证效果也受到政治因素的影响和政策的制约,有待进一步规范。     

Quality assurance for public higher education: context,strategies and challenges in Kenya

Quality assurance (QA) mechanisms used to be highly dependent on national administrative traditions but nowadays there is a convergence of mechanisms. Compared to more developed higher education (HE) systems in the world, QA systems in Africa are still at an infant stage and thus confronted by many challenges. The purpose of this article is to present some of the findings derived from a study analysing the crucial issues and unique challenges facing Kenya's public HE as it struggles to develop QA mechanisms. Using purposive sampling, the researcher chose two public universities who indicated their willingness to participate and a national QA Agency (QAA). The study was done through in-depth interviews and a review of historical materials and records. Overall, respondents strongly emphasised the need for Kenyan universities to have compulsory and effective external and internal QA mechanisms. They indicated that the trends facing HE make it necessary for HE in Kenya to review their traditional QA structures and to create new systems of external QA. The numerous comments in this research indicate deficiency not only in the QAA focus and work but also in the internal QA frameworks within public universities.     

Preparing university students to lead K-12 engineering outreach programmes: a design experiment

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an engineering outreach programme designed to increase the interest of under-represented youth in engineering and to disseminate pre-engineering design challenge materials to K-12 educators and volunteers. Given university students’ critical role as facilitators of the outreach programme, researchers conducted a two-year design experiment to examine the programme's effectiveness at preparing university students to lead pre-engineering activities. Pre- and post-surveys incorporated items from the Student Engagement sub-scale of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale. Surveys were analysed using paired-samples t-test. Interview and open-ended survey data were analysed using discourse analysis and the constant comparative method. As a result of participation in the programme, university students reported a gain in efficacy to lead pre-engineering activities. The paper discusses programme features that supported efficacy gains and concludes with a set of design principles for developing learning environments that effectively prepare university students to facilitate pre-engineering outreach programmes.     

强化教育质量保证:若干教育认证评估方法的探析与比较

教育认证评估是强化教育质量保证、促进学校可持续发展的重要措施.教育认证评估有多种方式,目前国内尚无完善的、规范的教育认证评估标准体系和专业认证机构.中国的教育认证评估有待于借鉴国际认证评估的经验并进行自我完善.     

俄罗斯专业认证的特点及其启示

在俄罗斯高等教育评估制度中,由法律层面制定国家教育标准和明确教育评估方式,保 证了教育评估活动及其标准的法律依据与执行规范。俄罗斯国家公共认证中心开展的高校专业认 证标准,具有注重内部质量保障体系的有效性、实施以学生为中心的教育、强调教育国际化、注重信 息化建设及信息公开等特点。专业认证过程中专家遴选、专家手册、评议方式、认证报告、行为准则 等规范性文件保证了认证结果的公正性和公信力。这对我国提高教育评估专业化水平,推进教育改 革发展具有重要的借鉴意义。     

欧洲高校与质量文化：迎接质量保证的挑战

欧洲许多国家的高等教育质量保证体系在不断发展的同时,也受到学术界和高校管理人士的尖锐批评。近年来,一些学者开始倡导质量文化的理念,尤其是在欧洲大学联合会的支持下,已经发展成为一种思潮。质量文化还没有完全统一的定义,但将其融入学校管理和改革中已成为欧洲高校的无奈和必然选择。质量文化的培育方式还有待深入研究,但有学者已经做了有益尝试并取得一定成果。这一理念对中国高校具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Assessment moderation in an Australian context: processes,practices, and challenges

Moderation is a quality assurance process that plays a central role in the teaching, learning, and assessment cycle in higher education. While there is a growing body of research globally on teaching, learning, and, to a lesser degree, assessment in higher education, the process of moderation of assessment has received even less attention. In a context of heightened accountability and greater transparency in the tertiary sector, the formalising of moderation processes has not been a part of established practice. In light of these changes, the purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and investigate current marking and moderation processes and practices operating within one faculty in a large urban university in eastern Australia to gain insight into the challenges to effective moderation. The findings suggest the need for moderation to be considered holistically as an inherent part of teaching and learning, and the need for ongoing staff development.     

New challenges for higher education: global and Asia-Pacific perspectives

With rapid socio-economic changes, twenty-first century higher education is facing major challenges to its governance systems, curriculum, mission focus, external relations, research, and financing. A theoretical framework to analyze these post-massification challenges is suggested, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region as well as global issues. Five main topic areas provide the basis for the theoretical framework: massification, privatization, accountability and governance, internationalization, and ranking and world-class universities. Some discussion of the possible effects of the financial crisis that commenced in 2008 is provided.     

Quality assurance in engineering education on a national and European scale

Activity 2 of project E4, “Quality Assessment and Transparency for Enhanced Mobility and Trans-European Recognition”, included the working group on “Quality Assurance in Engineering on a National and European Scale”. Its report can be found in Part 2 of Volume D, final report of the E4 Thematic Network (Firenze University Press 2003).

The Report of this Working Group is formed by three parts.

Chapter 2 explores the horizon of evaluation, and briefly summarizes evaluation mandate, focus and procedures in the light of quality and quality assurance, accreditation, responsibility, with particular reference to higher education.

Chapter 3 explores the ideas from a number of European evaluation models for higher education, and shows that their contents can be read in the frame of four fundamental “aspects” or “dimensions” of quality:

• –?Requirements, objectives

• –?Teaching, learning, assessment

• –?Learning resources

• –?Monitoring, analysis, improvement

Chapter 4 underlines that a Programme should be evaluated on the basis of its ability to put into effect a policy focusing—clearly and distinctly—on the external and internal efficacy of the learning process: specify worthwhile learning goals and enable most students to achieve the established objectives. The set of “aspects” examined in Chapter 3 is expanded into a minimum set of “factors”, that the Programme should address in a stable manner before it is submitted to an external evaluation.

In developing this activity, a selection of a few representative models was examined, bringing out the essential structure that they have in common. The reference documents can be found in the References section of this article.

What follows is extracted from the conclusions of Chapter 4.     

资源与服务质量认证是促进优质数字化资源建设和应用的有效途径

数字化资源和学习服务的质量是影响信息化教学效果的关键。采用评估或者评优的方式对数字化资源和学习服务进行评价是一种关注事物结果、事后的、教育系统内部的自我评价。目前国际上越来越流行的质量认证,从第三方角度,关注事物发展过程,能通过对资源开发和服务过程的规范和改进,促进优质数字化资源的建设和应用,间接达到提高信息化教学质量的效果。开展数字化资源开发与服务质量认证,要在正确认识认证的基础上,建立科学、合理、统一、与时俱进的指标体系,成立可持续发展、针对性强、良性竞争的第三方认证机构。     

Erasmus Thematic Networks and the European dimension of Engineering Education

Some of the most important challenges for engineering schools at the beginning of the 21st century are summarised as well as the role of ERASMUS Thematic Networks (TN) in this scenario.

Though focus is mainly given to the European environment, the changes which are interesting Engineering Education appear to involve also the non-European sphere and therefore, this set of papers on the main outcomes of E4 Thematic Network (2000–2004) has been conceived, not only as an useful instrument of dissemination, but also an open window on Europe.

In this introductory paper key characteristics of successful TNs are outlined, as resulting from the experience of TN E4, Enhancing Engineering Education in Europe, which has terminated its life end of September 2004. The new TN project, denominated TREE, for Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe, is briefly presented.

On the other hand, in the following 5 sections some of the main activities developed within E4 are presented touching topics related to accreditation, quality assurance, students involvement in Engineering Education, ICT and new learning methods and curriculum development.     

Computer-assisted learning in UK engineering degree programmes: lessons learned from an extensive case study programme

This paper gives a synopsis of an extensive programme of case studies on real uses of computer-assisted learning (CAL) materials within UK engineering degree programmes. The programme was conducted between 2000 and 2003 and followed a questionnaire-based survey looking at CAL use in the UK and in Australia. The synopsis reveals a number of key messages for academic tutors and authors including students' enthusiasm for notes, self-tests and features to aid visualisation. Publishers should also consider pricing and licensing arrangements suited to the individual user. Cet article donne une synthèse exhaustive des études de cas concernant l'utilisation concrète des logiciels d'enseignement assisté par ordinateur (EAO) dans les études d'ingénieur au Royaume Uni. Ces études, conduites entre 2000 et 2003, sont basées sur l'analyse de questionnaires concernant l'utilisation de l'EAO au Royaume Uni et en Australie. La synthèse révèle un certain nombre de points clés destinés au corps enseignant et aux auteurs, dont notamment l'intérêt des étudiants pour les cours papiers, les exercices d'autoévaluation et les éléments d'aide à la visualisation. Les aspects liés aux coû ts et aux droits d'auteurs devraient aussi ûtre pris en compte par les éditeurs, afin de faciliter l'accès aux logiciels par les utilisateurs individuels.     

The engineering and science institutions in the UK: changes,ambiguities and current challenges

The role and performance of the engineering and scientific institutions in the UK have been undergoing gradual change in response to external, State and global influences. Consequently, the institutions are having to adapt and in the process of doing so the traditional balance between learned society and qualifying association activities is now in a state of flux. The relevance of professional registration is being questioned by employers and practitioners alike and the institutions are now having to operate in a greater collaborative context than hitherto. This paper reviews developments which have been taking place since the early 1970’s and, by using responses from a survey of engineering and scientific institutions, identifies significant current problems and some challenges which lie ahead and which have yet to be confronted if the institutions are to continue to make a constructive contribution to society.     

Assuring quality in Asian open and distance learning

Open and distance learning (ODL) is enjoying phenomenal growth in Asian higher education, new forms of provision are being developed, new institutions are being established and there is a surge in online export and import. However, there is still need to ensure that increasing access does not result in lowering standards and to prove that ODL is at least as good as conventional education and, in many cases, more innovative, effective and efficient. The paper examines the various quality assurance approaches employed in Asian university ODL, and the values, assumptions and advantages and disadvantages of these. It concludes by suggesting what is needed to encourage and achieve a culture of quality in the field.