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Addressing the Politics of Accreditation in Engineering Education: The Benefits of Soft Systems Thinking

Addressing the Politics of Accreditation in Engineering Education: The Benefits of Soft Systems Thinking

Henk Eijkman, Obada Kayali
Copyright: © 2011 |Volume: 1 |Issue: 2 |Pages: 10
ISSN: 2155-496X|EISSN: 2155-4978|EISBN13: 9781613508947|DOI: 10.4018/ijqaete.2011070101
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MLA

Eijkman, Henk, and Obada Kayali. "Addressing the Politics of Accreditation in Engineering Education: The Benefits of Soft Systems Thinking." IJQAETE vol.1, no.2 2011: pp.1-10. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijqaete.2011070101

APA

Eijkman, H. & Kayali, O. (2011). Addressing the Politics of Accreditation in Engineering Education: The Benefits of Soft Systems Thinking. International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education (IJQAETE), 1(2), 1-10. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijqaete.2011070101

Chicago

Eijkman, Henk, and Obada Kayali. "Addressing the Politics of Accreditation in Engineering Education: The Benefits of Soft Systems Thinking," International Journal of Quality Assurance in Engineering and Technology Education (IJQAETE) 1, no.2: 1-10. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijqaete.2011070101

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Abstract

Engineering departments may face a formidable task in conducting effective accreditation reviews of their programs and ensuring that their outcomes meet the demands of the accrediting organisation. Not least of these tasks is walking the political tightrope of academic staff engagement in environments that reward research over and above educational tasks. This is exacerbated if and when existing programs, when reviewed for accreditation, demand a considerable expenditure of time and energy to ensure they at least meet current, let alone future, graduate attributes and standards. This paper confronts the generally ignored ‘elephant in the room’ of accreditation, namely the politics of accreditation reviews in institutional environments that are increasingly pre-occupied with research. The essential point of this paper is this; accreditation involves the whole-of-program engagement of academics with divergent curricular and pedagogic interests, let alone perspectives and work priorities. Therefore, accreditation reviews are much more likely to be successful when they are approached from a soft systems methodology perspective.

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