Comparing the regional and international accreditation programs of NCAAA and ABET for undergraduate engineering education evaluations

Abstract

This research study was focused on the accreditation of a local university and its programs during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 periods. Accreditation requires that the university be under the consideration by an autonomous agency for the quality assurance. Accreditation can be done for the entire institution or for individual programs within an institution. Accreditation is a voluntary process that many institutions go through with multiple steps. Usually, universities request accreditation agencies to assess their programs, faculty, and students' achievements to establish if they meet the quality requirements every six years. When requirements are met, the organization is regularly reassessed and accredited to make sure that the whole body persists in meeting the standards. Majmaah University (MU) of Saudi Arabia has been recently prepared for both regional (National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment - NCAAA) and international (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology - ABET) accreditation programs. Most of the undergraduate engineering teaching programs were certified by both NCAAA and ABET. These accreditation programs have mainly similar outcomes although there were some small variations. This study provides the details on the similarity, differences, strengths, and weaknesses of the two accreditation systems and the required documentations to meet the accreditation criteria and demands.