Project description

1) Summary

The EUR-ACE project (September 2004/March 2006) has formulated and proposed a European system of accreditation of engineering programmes at the First and Second Cycle level (but allowing also accreditation of “Integrated Programmes”, i.e. programmes leading directly to a SC degree). In this system, “national” engineering accreditations agencies will continue to award their accreditation certificates, to which a common European quality label (the EUR-ACE label) will be added. To this aim, a set of Framework Standards to be respected by all participating agencies has been formulated and published. In countries in which no national system of the kind is in place, the establishment of a new national (or regional) agency will be promoted: in the meantime, accreditation and the EUR-ACE label will be awarded by an agency participating in the system.

To operate the system, an International non-profit Association (ENAEE: European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education) has been established.  It promoted the EUR-ACE Implementation project, that aims at making these proposals operational by setting up the necessary organization, planning and supervising the award of the first EUR-ACE labels, favouring the spread of the system to other countries, establishing a fee policy that can rapidly make the system self-supporting.


2) Contractual Facts

Applicant Institution: University of Florence

Legal Representative: Prof. Claudio Borri

Coordinator: Prof. Giuliano Augusti

Agreement Number: 2006-1740/001-001

Eligibility Period: 01.09.06-31.07.08

 

3) Aims and objectives of the project

This project aims at implementing the results of the EUR-ACE project and establish on a permanent and self-supporting basis the proposed European accreditation system of engineering programmes, as a decentralised system in which national (or regional) bodies will accredit the programmes and mutually recognize a common quality label, namely “EUR-ACE Bachelor” (European Accredited Engineering Bachelor) and “EUR-ACE Master” (European Accredited Engineering Master), corresponding respectively to First-Cycle and Second-Cycle accredited degrees in Engineering.

In countries in which no national system of the kind is in place, the establishment of new national (or regional) engineering accreditation agencies will be promoted: in the meantime, each accreditation and the EUR-ACE label will be awarded by an agency participating in the system. Alternatively, existing national “general” accreditation agencies will be contacted for the possibility of integrating the EUR-ACE criteria and procedures in their evaluation and accreditation of engineering programmes.

More specifically, EUR-ACE IMPLEMENTATION will

(i) Implement the proposals of EUR-ACE, as illustrated in the two documents A1 and A2;

(ii) promote and supervise the award of the first quality labels “EUR-ACE Bachelor” and “EUR-ACE Master”;

(iii) facilitate the establishment of accreditation practices of engineering education in countries where at present no such system is operating;

(iv) set-up a viable and self-supporting system to carry on the practices in successive years.

The organization of the system and the award of the quality label will follow the indications of EUR-ACE Document A2 (here Attachment A2); the award of the label will be subjected to the respect of the EUR-ACE Framework Standards,  plus appropriate “Quality requirements” and a “Code of Good Practice” in line with the ENQA Standards, by the relevant Accrediting Body.