Engineering as social and ethical practice: the role of new course accreditation requirements

This paper begins with a brief exploration of the rapid changes in the practice of engineering during the twentieth century, and particularly over its last few decades. Engineers now routinely work across national and cultural boundaries and in multi-disciplinary teams. While engineering practice draws on a range of technical knowledge and skills, it is also a social activity that continues to shape our modern world. Engineering practice underpins the increasingly global character of commerce and industry. Engineers need to understand and appreciate the nature and impact of their work in order to make an effective professional contribution to meeting the key challenge of the twenty-first century, global sustainability. The paper discusses accreditation requirements for engineering programs in the USA and Australia in the light of these changing expectations for the engineering profession. In particular it looks at the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and the Computer Science Accreditation Board (CSAB) Engineering Criteria 2000 in the USA and compares them with the new course accreditation requirements that came out of a recent review of engineering education in Australia.