A Framework For Substantial Abet Accreditation Of An International Civil Engineering Program

The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) is the national university of the United Arab Emirates. The UAEU is the largest public university in the country, serving about 14,000 students. The College of Engineering offers B.S. degrees in civil, computer, electrical, mechanical engineering, chemical, and petroleum engineering. The paper presents the framework developed for preparing the Civil Engineering program for substantial ABET accreditation. The paper discusses all direct and indirect program outcomes and a summary of the process to achieve these outcomes. In addition, the paper focuses on the major steps toward developing and achieving the curriculum assessment of the program. The paper will present the major step in integrating the program assessment tools by a comprehensive and sophisticated spreadsheet that lists all the curricula and course outcomes of each course in the program. It automatically imports the individual course outcome into the spreadsheet and provides outcome indices on whether program objectives and outcomes achieved or not. Discussion on challenges for developing and achieving the program outcomes will present. Recommendations and lessons learned from this process to help other Civil Engineering programs in general and international program in particular in achieving accreditation will be presented.