TY - JOUR
T1 - Aligning an engineering education program to the Washington Accord requirements
T2 - Example of the University of Botswana
AU - Oladiran, M. Tunde
AU - Pezzotta, Giuditta
AU - Uziak, Jacek
AU - Gizejowski, Marian
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84975801806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84975801806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84975801806
SN - 0949-149X
VL - 29
SP - 1591
EP - 1603
JO - International Journal of Engineering Education
JF - International Journal of Engineering Education
IS - 6
ER -