Acredita CI will host the 3rd Meeting of the Lima Accord 2018

Acredita CI will host the 3rd Meeting of the Lima Accord 2018 to be held in Santiago, Chile, on
November 6.

The third annual meeting of the signatory members of the Lima Accord will be held in Santiago, Chile, on November 6 and 7 of this year.

The Accord was signed by the accrediting agencies representing engineering in their respective countries or jurisdictions with the objective of standardizing the requirements, good practices and competences required of the engineers of the region in order to be able to mutually recognize their competences as substantially equivalents and thus allow higher professional mobility among the member countries of the Accord.

After having held the first meetings in Lima, Peru and Mérida in Mexico, where the organization was in charge of ICACIT and CACEI respectively, this year is Acredita CI who will be in charge of the organization of this meeting in the city of Santiago.

On Tuesday, November 6, the day will begin with the transfer of the presidency of the Accord, which since the previous meeting was in charge of María Elena Barrera, General Director of the Accreditation Council of the Engineering Education of Mexico, to Jessica Pizarro , General Manager of Acredita CI. In addition, during the morning the rules and procedures for the Agreement will be reviewed, each member will make a presentation of the graduation attributes for their respective country or jurisdiction.

After a lunch where the attendees will share their impressions about the work done during the last years and their projection towards the future, the graduation attributes of the world associations will be reviewed and a proposal will be made to make a comparative study of these attributes among the members of the Accord. Subsequently, the meeting will be closed.

The signatory members who will meet at the meeting are:

  • María Elena Barrera B. – Council of Accreditation of the Teaching of Engineering of Mexico, CACEI, outgoing President of the Lima Agreement.
  • Jessica Pizarro P. – Accrediting Agency of the College of Engineers of Chile, Acredita CI, Vice-President of the Lima Agreement.
  • Marcia Vargas H. – Central American Agency for Accreditation of Architecture and Engineering Programs, ACAAI.

Marcia also represents the Ibero-American Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, RIACES, for being one of the Network’s Directors.

  • José Loría A. – Council of Accreditation of the Engineering Education of Mexico, CACEI.
  • Enrique Álvarez R. – Institute of Quality and Accreditation of Computer, Engineering and Technology programs of Peru, ICACIT.
  • Daniel Sánchez R. – Institute of Quality and Accreditation of Computer, Engineering and Technology programs of Peru, ICACIT.
  • Daniel Hernández – Association of Federated Engineers of Costa Rica, CFIA.

The confirmed guests to participate in the meeting are:

  • Teófilo Ramos G. – President of Region 9 of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE.
  • Víctor Medina G. – Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions, LACCEI.
  • Arturo Gana D. – President College of Engineers of Chile.
  • Carlos Andreani L. – Chairman of Acredita CI.
  • Elías Arze C. – Director of Acredita CI.
  • Germán Millán P. – Director of Acredita CI.
  • Tomás Guendelman B. – Director of Acredita CI.
  • Karen Kanzúa Arancibia – Dean of the Central University Engineering School and member of the board of directors of the Chilean Engineering Faculties Corporation, CONDEFI.
  • Pablo Recabarren – President Federal Council of Deans of Engineering of the Argentine Republic, CONFEDI.
  • Marcia Varela – Deputy Manager of Technology Transfer of CORFO, Government of Chile.
  • Felisa Córdova –President Education Commission of the College of Engineers.
  • Mario Letelier –President of the Chilean Society of Education in Engineering.
  • Juan Eduardo Vargas –Head of the Higher Education Division of MINEDUC.
  • Piero Guasta – Ministry of Foreign Affairs Advisor.
Signing of the Lima Accord, Lima 2016.

Washington Accord Accreditation: presentation in Chile of the Acredita CI accreditation model for science-based engineering

On Thursday, August 16, 2018 took place in the main auditorium of the College of Engineers of
Chile the 1st Seminar Workshop for the Washington Accord Accreditation. The event, organized by Acredita CI in conjunction with the Commission of Education of the College of Engineers, was attended by more than 120 people, representatives of engineering both in the academy and in the industry.

At the annual meeting of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) held in London, United Kingdom, between June 24 and 29 of this year, the Agencia Acreditadora del Colegio de Ingenieros de Chile, Acredita CI, on behalf of Chile, was admitted as provisional member of the Washington Accord, whose mission is to guarantee the substantial equivalence of engineering education among the member countries of the Accord through the accreditation of programs. For graduates of accredited programs, their professional mobility among member countries is substantially facilitated.

Substantial equivalence establishes that accredited engineering programs «educates graduates who are in a position to find employment, as they are expected to undergo a formative process and an experiential learning that leads them to the achievement of substantially equivalent professional competencies». That is, they are not expected to have identical results and content, but they are capable of moving towards a similar level of professional development.

The Accredita CI accreditation process contemplates a reflection on the compliance of 11 evaluation criteria. The program, in particular, will account for the compliance of seven specific criteria with emphasis on the graduation profile, which must contemplate the 12 attributes defined by the Washington Accord, which are: Engineering knowledge; Problem analysis; Design / development of solutions; Investigation; Use of modern tools; Engineering and society; Environment and sustainability; Ethics; Individual work and on team; Communication; Project and finance management; and Lifelong learning. Accredita CI will award the Washington Accord Accreditation to those programs that demonstrate that they incorporate these attributes into their graduation profile or that they are at an advanced stage for it, based on permanent improvement mechanisms.

In order to publicize the scope of the Accord in Chile, Acredita CI, in conjunction with the Education Commission of the College of Engineers of Chile, organized the «1st Workshop Seminar for the Washington Accord Accreditation», an event in which appointment of more than 120 engineering educators from Universities from Antofagasta to Puerto Montt.

Institutions present at the Workshop Seminar.

 

The activity began at 2:00 pm with words of welcome and introduction from Dr. Felisa Córdova, President of the Education Commission of the College of Engineers of Chile, later, Dr. Yadran Eterovic, Director of the Department of Science of the Computing of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and president of the Accreditation Council of the Acredita CI Technology Area, presented the experience of receiving external evaluators in international accreditation processes, then Mr. Mario Letelier, president of the Chilean Society of Engineering Education, spoke about the impact of international accreditation on the quality and relevance of Chilean engineering education.

After sharing a coffee, at 4:00 pm Mr. Enrique Álvarez, President of ICACIT from Peru, the first Latin American agency to be incorporated as a signatory member of the Washington Accord, spoke about the experience of accrediting programs under international criteria, the demands that this entails and the main findings.
Then, at 4:45 p.m., Ms. Jessica Pizarro, general manager of Acredita CI, explained about the accreditation model for the Washington Accord that will be implemented in Chile, what would be the criteria to apply, the way in which these criteria would be applied, the benefits and the added value that implies having the Washington Accord Accreditation, as well as disseminated the proposal of a model of engineering education designed by the College of Engineers of Chile based on the National Qualifications Framework, which establishes that a professional program can be taught in 300 SCT, that is, in five years of education.

Proposed curriculum for engineering programs of the College of Engineers.

 

Finally, between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., all the exhibitors of the day went up to the stage to answer
the questions and comments of the attendees.

 

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ACREDITA CI ORGANIZES TRAINING WORKSHOPS FOR PEER EVALUATORS OF TECNICHAL PROGRAMS

As a major initiative for the development of accreditation processes for technical and professional programs in Chile, Acredita CI organized a training program for peer evaluator in order to guide the external evaluation and introduce the new evaluation criteria and instruments published by the CNA (National Commission of Accreditation). These activities were developed on 23 and 29 August of 2017 and were attended by about 35 academics and professional of the technical-professionals education.

Peer evaluators are a fundamental component in the process of accreditation of programs and are very relevant actors for our agency. Because of their experience and trajectory, they constitute a significant and complementary contribution to the self-evaluation process developed by the programs.

It is the policy of the agency to organize permanent training for peer evaluators and plan their execution according to the different levels of education in order to specialize the evaluation of programs and achieve quality accreditation processes.

In the workshop they worked with active pedagogy methodologies and reviewed the following documentation

  • Evaluation Guidelines for Institutional accreditation of Technical Educational Centers
  • Evaluation Guidelines for Institutional accreditation of Professional Institutes
  • Evaluation Criterias for tecnichal programs
  • Evaluation Criterias for accreditation of programs with or without bachelors.
  • Model of Continuous improvement used by ABET, USA Accreditation Agency
  • Competence profile of the Peer Evaluator of Acredita CI.

At the instance, our General Manager Jessica Pizarro declared the importance of verifying the consistency between the formative process and the institutional objectives. She also emphasized the relevance of the special relationship that has to create the peer evaluator with the institution, in which an essential part of the evaluation comes into play. This one has to be cordial and accorded to the evidence.

Finally it was verified through the results of a satisfaction survey, that the academics and professionals were satisfied with the workshop regarding the quality of the narratable, the contents, organization and equipment.

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ACREDITA CI PARTICIPATES IN IEA 2017 ANNUAL MEETING TO POSTULATE TO WASHINGTON ACCORD

Acredita CI participated in The International Engineering Alliance Meeting 2017 (IEAM2017) in order to be nominating to the Washington Accord and be accepted as a Provisional member. This major initiative is relevant for the development of accreditation processes for the scientifically based engineering careers in Chile. The event was performed in June 18-23, 2017 at Anchorage, Alaska, USA.

The International Engineering Alliance (IEA) is the entity responsible for coordinating the activities carried out by the Washington Accord, among other organisms related to both the accreditation of careers and mutual recognition agreements on the performance of engineers in the professional field.

The experience of sharing with other accreditation agencies of other countries like South Africa, Canada, Japan, China, India, New Zeeland, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Korea and other 6 countries empowers the development of Acredita CI principally acknowledging that the process of accreditation of these agencies granted the substantial equivalency of the programs accredited by this organisms. On the other hand the incorporation of Acredita CI will have benefits like:

  • Training in the Process and Guidance of the Self review
  • Permanent training of peer evaluators. Performance guidance.
  • Washington Accord graduate attribute (graduate profile)
  • External Assesement Visiting
  • Accreditation Desition

Once Acredita CI integrates the Agreement, which will happen in London 2018, Civil Engineering programs and their specialties that wish accreditation through Acredita CI may choose to develop their processes in consideration of a fourth Dimension: the program´s graduate profile is oriented to the competencies of the Engineer who establishes the Agreement.

Acredita CI had the chance to share with a lot of international organisms, and checked that the accreditation process of the agency is solid. The following organisms assisted to the activity.

The List of assistants

Photos

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If you want to know more of IEA and his activities click here.

For Acredita CI – july 15, 2017