Quality Assurance and Accreditation of Engineering Programmes at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad

Abstract

The quality of engineering education is challenging and is of paramount importance in today’s globalised world. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus, inherited a western education system and the accreditation systems in the five departments within the Faculty are based on the British accreditation system. The aim of this paper is to describe how this accreditation system is utilised in the Faculty of Engineering to ensure that the quality of the delivery of its programmes is at a high standard. The paper was derived from a survey carried out by the author. It describes the quality systems available in the Faculty and fully describes the steps involved in the accreditation process. The paper reveals the recent attempt at introducing the Caribbean Accreditation Council for Engineering and Technology (CACET) but concludes that until it is fully established and internationally recognised through its membership in the Washington Accord or any other comparably recognized international body, there will still be room for the international accreditation by the British institutions or other comparative international institutions at the Faculty of Engineering at UWI.