Aligning an engineering education program to the Washington Accord requirements: Example of the University of Botswana

M. Tunde Oladiran, Giuditta Pezzotta, Jacek Uziak, Marian Gizejowski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The accreditation systems of engineering education programs governed by the Washington Accord have evolved in order to respond to modern technological and scientific development. The principal purpose of the paper is to indicate that the process re-engineering model commonly employed in business environments can also be used in an educational system. In particular, the paper describes the process of re-engineering used for the transformation of the BEng (Mech) program in order to align it with the accreditation requirements. The study adopts a Business Re-engineering Process (BRP) in which engineering education is considered as a process. A modified McKinsey's re-engineering model was chosen as a tool to re-engineer the educational system. The model involves five broad phases, namely, identification, review&analysis, re-design, test & implementation and continuous improvement. The paper concentrates on the first two phases. The existing curriculum is mapped according to the graduate attributes, competency profiles and the Exit Level Outcomes of the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). From the list of identified deficiencies it can be concluded that the major shortcoming of the program is not its content but its delivery. It is recommended that innovative flexible delivery methods should be used as teaching styles.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1591-1603
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Journal of Engineering Education
Volume29
Issue number6
Publication statusPublished - 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Education
  • General Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Aligning an engineering education program to the Washington Accord requirements: Example of the University of Botswana'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this