Title: Implementation of European Quality Award in Engineering Educational Institutions via Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology

Authors: D. Thandapani; K. Gopalakrishnan; S.R. Devadasan; R. Murugesh

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, C. Abdul Hakeem College of Engineering and Technology, Melvisharam, Vellore 632509, Tamilnadu, India. ' The Institution of Engineers, Karnataka State Centre, Bangaluru 560001, Karnataka, India. ' Production Engineering Department, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, Tamilnadu, India. ' Darshan Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajkot 363650, Gujarat, India

Abstract: A research involving the study of implementing the requirements of European Quality Award (EQA) in Engineering Educational Institutions (EEIs) via Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) based accreditation has been reported in this paper. Initially, the stipulations of ABET and EQA were studied. Only one criterion of EQA titled 'People results' was found to be uncommon with ABET's stipulations. Hence, an EEI accredited with ABET needs to implement only this uncommon criterion. After drawing this inference, an implementation study was conducted in an EEI situated in Tamilnadu State of India. As ABET-based accreditation elements had been developed in this EEI, the common elements were reordered to suit the ordering of EQA criteria. Only the elements pertaining to 'People results' were developed during this implementation study. On the whole, the experiences gained by conducting this research revealed the feasibility of implementing EQA via ABET-based accreditation in modern EEIs.

Keywords: engineering education; European Quality Award; EQA; EFQM Excellence Award; European Foundation for Quality Management; Total Quality Management; TQM; ABET; Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology; India; educational institutions; people results; uncommon criteria; implementation studies; Tamilnadu; common elements; C Abdul Hakeem College of Engineering and Technology; CAHCET; universities; higher education; Melvisharam; business excellence.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2013.050576

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2013 Vol.6 No.1, pp.59 - 76

Published online: 30 Sep 2013 *

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