More Than 75 Years of Quality Assurance in Technical Education

It was 1932 when ABET was established as the Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD). ECPD was formed to fill the apparent need for a “joint program for upbuilding engineering as a profession,” a need determined through surveys conducted by professional engineering societies in the 1920s. The ECPD’s original focuses were in the following areas:

• Guidance — Supplying information to engineering students and potential students.

• Training — Developing plans for personal and professional development.

• Education — Appraising engineering curricula and maintaining a list of accredited curricula.

• Recognition — Developing methods where-by individuals could achieve recognition by the profession and the general public.

Seven engineering societies founded the organization and contributed to its original direction and focus: The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers (now the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE), the Society for the Promotion
of Engineering Education (now the American Society for Engineering Education), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the National Council of State Boards of Engineering Examiners (now NCEES).

Within its first year of existence, ECPD had begun developing itself as an accreditation agency; in 1936, ECPD evaluated its first engineering degree programs. Ten years later, the council began evaluating engineering technology degree programs.    

By its 15th year, ECPD had accredited 580 undergraduate engineering curricula at 133 institutions. Its 1947 report “ECPD: A Challenge” notes that plans to accredit graduate curricula in the U.S. and the undergraduate curricula of 11 programs in Canada were interrupted by World War II. While the organization never did carry out the accreditation of Canadian curricula, it did accredit a master’s program curricula in 1955. The program, however, considered a “first-degree” program by its institution, was accredited as a “first-degree” program by ECPD. It was not until nearly 20 years later that evaluation criteria for advanced-level programs were developed.    

Producing guidance and training publications was a large part of ECPD operations. The council produced dozens of books, pamphlets, brochures, and even a couple of movies. Here are just a few of the many titles: “Reading List for Junior Engineers” (1945); “Speaking Can Be Easy... for Engineers Too” (1950); “WOMENGINEER” (1974); and “Minorities in Engineering” (1974).

In 1980, ECPD was renamed the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) to more accurately describe its emphasis on accreditation. Three years later, ABET created the Related Accreditation Commission, now known as the Applied Science Accreditation Commission (ASAC).

In response to the anticipated boom in computer science education, ABET helped establish the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (now CSAB) in 1985. CSAB is now one of ABET’s largest member societies with more than 250 accredited programs.

In 2005, ABET formally changed its name from the “Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology” to ABET, Inc. This allows the organization to continue its activities under the name that represents leadership and quality in accreditation for the public while reflecting its broadening into additional areas of technical education.

ABET’s international activities, now a thriving area of the organization, initially launched in 1979 when ECPD signed its first mutual recognition agreement with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. By 1989, ABET was a consultant to both fledgling and established international accreditation boards, a “substantial equivalence” evaluator of international programs, and a founding member of the multinational Washington Accord.          

Currently, ABET accredits some 2,700 programs at more than 550 colleges and universities nationwide. Each year, over 1,500 volunteers from its now 29 member societies actively contribute to ABET’s goals of leadership and quality assurance in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology education, serving as program evaluators, committee and council members, commissioners, and Board representatives.

ABET has been recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) since 1997.

Outcomes Assessment and Continuous Improvement

In 1997, following nearly a decade of development, ABET adopted Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000), considered at the time a revolutionary approach to accreditation criteria. The revolution of EC2000 was its focus on what is learned rather than what is taught. At its core was the call for a continuous improvement process informed by the specific mission and goals of individual institutions and programs. Lacking the inflexibility of earlier accreditation criteria, EC2000 meant that ABET could enable program innovation rather than stifling it, as well as encourage new assessment processes and subsequent program improvement.

Today, the spirit of EC2000 can be found in the evaluation criteria of all ABET disciplines, and studies like Penn State's Engineering Change prove those criteria are having an impact on accredited programs. Internationally, ABET is extremely active in sharing that spirit with other accreditation boards and degree programs. It readily participates in global education and worker mobility through agreements like the Washington Accord. ABET also offers faculty workshops, outreach programs, and special events for institutional representatives, has an active industry advisory council, and is engaged in several important initiatives spurred by the visionary strategic planning of its Board.