STEPHENVILLE (August 30, 2018) — Tarleton State University’s bachelor’s degree program in civil engineering has been accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology.
The bachelor’s degree programs in electrical engineering and environmental engineering, also earned continued accreditation by the organization as part of the general review cycle.
“We are very excited about our ABET accreditations,” said Dr. Denise Martinez, associate dean of Tarleton’s School of Engineering. “Our civil engineering program began officially in fall 2014 and had its first graduates in spring 2017.”
Per ABET policy, a program may apply for accreditation upon its first set of graduates. Tarleton’s accreditation is retroactive to Oct. 1, 2016; thus all civil engineering graduates since then are from an accredited program.
ABET accreditation assures that programs meet standards to produce graduates ready to enter critical technical fields that lead the way in innovation and emerging technologies, and anticipate the welfare and safety needs of the public.
“This is very important as many industries will not hire engineering graduates if the program is not ABET accredited,” Martinez said. “In addition, it takes twice as long (eight years instead of four) for someone to obtain their professional engineer license if they don’t graduate from an ABET accredited engineering program.”
Earning ABET accreditation was, in Martinez’ words, “a monumental task.”
“The engineering faculty and staff in the Department of Engineering and Computer Science did a tremendous job preparing the self-study, collecting student work samples and hosting the on-site visit. They deserve enormous kudos and congratulations.”
Sought worldwide, ABET’s voluntary peer-review process is highly respected because it adds critical value to academic programs in the technical disciplines, where quality, precision and safety are of the utmost importance. Developed by technical professionals from ABET’s member societies, ABET criteria focus on what students experience and learn. ABET accreditation reviews look at program curricula, faculty, facilities and institutional support, and are conducted by teams of highly skilled professionals from industry, academia and government, with expertise in the ABET disciplines.
ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. It currently accredits more than 3,800 programs at some 750 colleges and universities in 31 countries.
More information about ABET, its member societies and the accreditation criteria used to evaluate programs can be found at www.abet.org.
For more information about Tarleton’s engineering programs, visit the Department of Engineering and Computer Science at www.tarleton.edu/encs/.
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