Why ABET Accreditation Matters

Accreditation Adds Value

ABET accreditation assures confidence that a collegiate program has met standards essential to prepare graduates to enter critical STEM fields in the global workforce. Graduates from an ABET-accredited program have a solid educational foundation and are capable of leading the way in innovation, emerging technologies, and in anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.

Students

Your degree is a significant achievement and perhaps the largest investment you will make toward your future. The quality of education you receive makes a big difference in your career success. ABET accreditation:

• Verifies that your educational experience meets the global standard for technical education in your profession.
• Enhances your employment opportunities—multinational corporations require graduation from an accredited program.
• Supports your entry to a technical profession through licensure, registration and certification—all of which often require graduation from an ABET-accredited program as a minimum qualification.
• Establishes your eligibility for many federal student loans, grants, and/or scholarships.
• Paves the way for you to work globally, because ABET accreditation is recognized worldwide through international agreements, and many other countries’ national accrediting systems are based on the ABET model.

Search thousands of jobs requiring graduation from an ABET-accredited program.

Institutions

The ABET accreditation review process is an intensive team effort, and program accreditation is voluntary in the U.S. So why go through the trouble? Because the process yields data and insights; you can use it to deliver the best educational experience for your students.

More than 2,000 professionals from academia, industry and government carry out every aspect of ABET accreditation. They know their profession’s dynamic and emerging workforce needs and review academic programs to ensure they provide the technical and professional skills graduates need to succeed.

ABET accreditation tells your prospective students, peers and the professions you serve that your program:

• Has received international recognition of its quality.
• Promotes “best practices” in education.
• Directly involves faculty and staff in self-assessment and continuous quality improvement processes.
• Is based on “learning outcomes,” rather than “teaching inputs.”
• Can more easily determine the acceptability of transfer credits.

Global

When ABET’s quality standards are applied and promoted around the globe, the results are a better-educated, geographically mobile, diverse technical workforce well-prepared to advance innovation and excel professionally in fields of critical importance to society.

ABET accreditation criteria are developed by technical professionals, members of our 34 member societies. Each society dedicates volunteers to perform program reviews related to its professions. Coming from academic, industrial and governmental backgrounds, ABET volunteers are trained experts who evaluate programs for relevancy, content and quality. This third-party peer review is critical in the technical fields, where quality, precision and safety are of utmost importance, and sets ABET apart from other accreditors. It is a solid process that has been refined over 80 years.

We promote excellence in technical education by focusing on continuous quality improvement processes, not by prescribing methods. With technological change occurring so rapidly, institutions seeking to ensure their programs are dynamically evolving participate in the ABET accreditation process.

ABET accreditation:

• Ensures that graduates have met the educational requirements necessary to enter the profession.
• Provides opportunities for the industry to guide the educational process to reflect current and future needs.
• Enhances the mobility of professionals.

Responsive to increasing globalization, we work to ensure that the graduates of ABET-accredited programs can employ their talents internationally. We do this by signing agreements with educational quality assurance organizations in other countries and jurisdictions. Not only does this allow ABET-accredited program graduates to use their skills around the world, but it also raises their value to employers. The U.S. government, for example, and many multinational corporations seek employees with degrees from ABET-accredited programs that translate globally.

When advertising for new hires, include “graduation from an ABET-accredited program” as one of your requirements.