Practitioner and Employer Assessment of ABET Outcome Criteria

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has revised the accreditation criteria that are designed to assure that graduates of accredited programs are prepared to enter the practice of engineering and satisfy industrial requirements. The general criteria also specify that engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates possess or satisfy eleven (11) educational outcomes generally known as “a” through “k.” This investigation suggests that graduating seniors in civil engineering believe their educational experience has given them a strong background in two of the outcomes required by ABET. These include: (1) an ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering; and (2) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems. In contrast, three outcomes received slightly lower ratings from alumni practitioners and employers. These include, a knowledge of contemporary issues; the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global/societal context; and an ability to communicate effectively. Overall, the data may suggest that not all ABET educational attributes are considered by graduating seniors in civil engineering, employers, and industrial practitioners, to have the same level of significance and perhaps should not be stressed to the same degree in an engineering program. In this regard, it was found that the scores from a benchmarking study tend to be lower than those of students and practitioners educated at Lamar University Nevertheless, for comparative purposes, the findings of the investigation could be utilized by other institutions and departments that may wish to study and/or assess their curriculum and satisfy ABET criteria.