MECHANISM OF EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION PROGRAMS OF IRAN

In the last two or three decades a global move was formed to revaluate engineering education and accreditation of its outcomes. The main principle in all these efforts was paying less attention to entries (what university offers) and put more attention on the outcomes (what students have gained). To accomplish this goal, the minimum expected outcomes of an undergraduate engineering program was formulated. Mutual agreement on the fundamental outcomes of an engineering graduate paves the road to reach to a globally uniform procedure for the accreditation of these programs. The accreditation of engineering programs consists of internal and external assessments. The internal or self assessment is carried out by educational institutions, while independent national institutions are usually responsible for the external assessment. Successful external assessment needs clearly defined standards carried out by unbiased evaluators. After foundation of Iran Accreditation Institute for Engineering Education (IAIEE), the process and standards of accreditation of Iranian engineering educational programs was prepared. This paper presents the designed mechanism for external assessment of the engineering programs of Iran.