Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) Página 425 de 957
Session 4: Thursday morning
Topic: Curricula 1 – Chair: Amparo Camacho
Assessment as a tool for improving the education of engineers: experiences of
international accreditation of the Universidad del Norte.
Amparo Camacho Diaz
acamacho@uninorte.edu.co
College of Engineering, Universidad Del Norte, Barranquilla
Colombia
Laura Muñoz Mendoza
lvmunoz@uninorte.edu.co
Dept. Industrial Engineering, Universidad Del Norte, Barranquilla
Colombia
Abstract: One of the biggest challenges in contemporary education is related to
the evaluation of the education process, and particularly at college level
becomes a challenge if taking into account the characteristics of students
entering this level, the characteristics of modern society, and the demands that
society makes to the college on the profile of the engineer that is being required.
The Engineering College of the Universidad del Norte, obtained in 2010 the
international accreditation granted by the agency ABET. In a similar way the six
programs of the College are accredited by the colombian agency on
accreditation of high quality. One aspect that has largely contributed to
obtaining accreditation of the programs has been having a model of quality
assurance, whose core is the Assessment process, which is based on ABET
EC2000.
The model developed in the College of Engineering has become a national
benchmark for various engineering schools.
Introduction
Universities face today big challenges in terms of rapidly changing societies, particularly
on aspects that directly or indirectly relate to the professional exercise of engineers; this
reality is requiring the colleges of engineering to guarantee to today's society, a qualified
professional performance of its graduates. To adequately respond to social, economic,
environmental and technological demands among others, engineering colleges require the
development of high standards training programs and implementation of quality
assurance mechanisms. The College of Engineering at Universidad del Norte, consisting of
six engineering programs, has implemented a quality assurance system for the education
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011