You Know You Can, but Should You and Will You? The Status of Master's Level Accreditation in Civil Engineering

In 2008, with the support of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering, ABET lifted its prohibition on dual-level accreditation. Currently, only one school in the nation, The University of Louisville, has attained accreditation for both the bachelor's (BS) and master's (MEng) degrees in civil engineering. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of dual-level accreditation. The results of a survey of the civil engineers department head's council was used to explore how many programs intend to seek dual-level accreditation as well as the reasons for why or why they do not plan to seek accreditation of their master's programs. In addition, four in-depth interviews were conducted with department chairs from a variety of institutions to more fully explore the issues raised by this survey and past papers. The results of the survey and interviews reveal that there is not wide spread support for, and that most programs do not intend to pursue, dual-level accreditation. The three major reasons for not seeking dual-level accreditation were 1. not necessary, no motivation/advantage to becoming accredited; 2. increased workload, with no benefit; and 3. limits flexibility/accreditation process is too rigid and will stifle the innovation that is the hallmark of graduate-level education. These reasons were consistent across the survey and interviews. Many of the department chairs expressed frustration with the accreditation process for their bachelor's degrees and are unlikely to take on the additional burden of accrediting their master's degrees without a clear benefit.