Quality Assurance Of Engineering Undergraduate Programs In Colombia: A Social Duty And A Competitive Strategy

In Colombia, the educational development of engineers must meet two particular challenges in the immediate future. The first one has to do with the unrestrained growth and diversification of undergraduate programs in engineering, which although helps to meet demand, generates problems with respect to quality. The other challenge to be taken into account has to do with globalization, since not only is the higher education market ever more competitive, but it is also true that engineers increasingly work in their profession in countries different from those where they received their higher education. This creates the need for international accreditation of programs and homologation of professional degrees. It is within this perspective that quality assurance has been conceived in Colombia in the last few years. It includes both accreditation of universities and their programs, as well as the establishment of minimum compulsory standards for programs and program evaluation exams that students must take before obtaining their degrees. By virtue of the similarities of the region’s conditions, this analysis is relevant for all countries in Latin America.