The University of the West Indies Mona announced on Tuesday that its Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering has won accreditation from ABET Inc, the global accreditor of applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology college and university programmes.

Commenting on the evelopment, dean of the faculty, Dr Paul Aiken said US-based ABET accreditation means that graduates can work anywhere in the world.

“This achievement serves as an additional impetus to continue to exceed the expectations of our programme constituents. The faculty remains committed to the task of bringing to fruition the faculty’s mission of propelling growth, development and innovation in the Caribbean, the region and the world,” he said.

The Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering is offered by the Faculty of Engineering, which was opened in September 2018. The request for accreditation was submitted in July 2017 while the programme was under the Mona School of Engineering in the Faculty of Science and Technology. In addition to the electronics engineering programme, the newly opened faculty offers degrees in civil engineering, electrical power engineering, and biomedical engineering.

According to the UWI, the electronics engineering programme was the first engineering programme to be offered at the Mona Campus and was therefore the only of the faculty’s programmes offered long enough to be eligible for ABET’s consideration in the 2016/2017-2017/2018 review cycle. It said that going forward, the faculty will be submitting the Self-Study Report in the 2021/2022 academic year for ABET’s (2019/2020-2021/2022) three-year review of all engineering programmes.

Dean Aiken said also that receiving and maintaining ABET accreditation for all engineering programmes means that all programs in the now UWI Mona Faculty of Engineering are subject to a systematic process of continuous improvement, which, he said, “is in alignment with the mission of the university, programme constituents’ needs, and requirements of our programme accreditors”.

“These continuous improvement mechanisms are built through the collective efforts and contribution of all our faculty partners and stakeholders who are recognised by ABET as programme constituents, Dr Aiken said.

ABET accreditation assures that programmes meet standards to produce graduates ready to enter critical technical fields that are leading the way in innovation and emerging technologies, and anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.

Its criteria were developed by technical professionals from ABET’s member societies and focus on what students experience and learn. Its accreditation reviews look at programme curricula, faculty, facilities, and institutional support, and are conducted by teams of highly skilled professionals from industry, academia, and government, with expertise in the ABET disciplines.