FROM BUREAUCRATIC EVALUATION AND RANKING TO COLLABORATIVE ASSESSMENT AND ACCREDITATION FOR ENHANCING QUALITY OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN IRAN

Increasing changes at national, regional, an international levels have posed new challenges to higher education in general and engineering education in particular. In this regard, engineering education should take into account not only these challenges, but also problems arising from sustainable development, energy and water resources, environment and new technologies. Based on this, engineering students should develop competencies and skills for lifelong learning. As such, the quality of engineering education has been considered as a major challenge. Hence, most industrialized and newly industrialized countries have taken effective steps towards, institutionalizing assessment and accreditation of engineering education. National and international experiences in higher education evaluation indicate that internal (self-) and external assessment are the most popular approaches to quality assessment and accreditation in higher education. But, in developing countries application of internal assessment without collaboration of faculty members, would end up to merely bureaucratic exercises, which would have little impact on quality improvement. Based on the above, this article aims at answering this question: What is an appropriate quality assessment and enhancement process in the Iranian engineering education? Towards this end, the article first reviews the need for assessment and accreditation of engineering education. Then, it emphasizes the necessity of carrying out collaborative self-assessment followed by external quality assessment. Furthermore, the article elaborates on evaluation factors, criteria, indicators, and the need for setting standards of quality. Finally, proposals are made about institutionalizing quality assurance in the Iranian engineering education.