The nuts and bolts of accreditation

Every fall many engineering students are informed that "the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) will be visiting our campus. They will want to meet with some of the students." Some of you may have been selected to meet with ABET representatives during a visit to your campus. No doubt you learned about the objectives of accreditation and the process of accreditation. But most students have not had this opportunity and may not be aware that ABET is involved with accreditation of engineering, engineering technology, computing and applied science programs in the United States. This article is aimed at explaining accreditation procedures to those who are not familiar with ABET and the accreditation process. While the focus of this article is on accreditation of engineering programs, the procedures for technology and applied science programs are very similar.