Dr. Teófilo Ramos
Director of Institutional Relations
Tecnológico de Monterrey
October 15, 2012
Buenos Aires , Argentina
Vicerrectoría Académica

ABET contribution to the establishment of the
Mexican engineering accreditation agency CACEI
• 1991 Curt Tomkins, ASEE President and Leslie Benmark
ABET President, gave a presentation on the American system of engineering accreditation to the Mexican
Engineering Deans Council in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mx.
• 1992 David Reyes Guerra, ABET Executive Director offered a workshop on accreditation of engineering programs to the Mexican Engineering Deans Council in
Tampico, Mx.
Vicerrectoría Académica

• 1993 Mexican Engineering Deans Council in Puebla issued an unanimous declaration in favor of the establishment of an I independent Mexican accreditation systems of engineering programs
• 1994 The Mexican agency for accreditation of engineering programs (CACEI) was established with a great collaboration and support from ABET.
• CACEI was the first program accrediting agency established in Mexico
• Currently CACEI is the largest program accrediting agency with 739 accredited programs, and there are other 26 accrediting agencies
Vicerrectoría Académica

• 1992 ABET evaluated 7 engineering programs of
Tecnológico de Monterrey and the evaluation team concurred that the undergraduate programs evaluated were equivalent to those programs that were accredited by ABET in the US. (substantially equivalent programs)
• 2012 There are 24 programs of Tecnologico de
Monterrey from 5 different campus accredited by
ABET and all the engineering programs are currently accredited by CACEI
• 2012 there are other 7 ABET accredited programs from 4
Mexican institutions in Mexico
Vicerrectoría Académica

The efforts of institutional accreditation and of specific programs have triggered changes of great impact at the institution
 Curriculum
 Faculty
 Students
 Infrastructure
 Organization
Vicerrectoría Académica

 More flexibility in the programs
 Establishment and operation of the Academies
 To include more courses of humanities and social sciences in engineering
 Formalization of general education
 Education in ethics, citizenship, innovation and sustainable development across the curriculum
 Graduate profiles based on program objectives and competences
 Assessment of program objectives through graduate follow up
Vicerrectoría Académica

 Better academic credentials
 Change in attitude: greater openness and flexibility, less protagonic
 New role of teacher role: facilitator
 More participatory teaching methods focused on learning of the student
 Advanced didactic techniques: PBL, POL, cases, collaborative learning, service learning
Vicerrectoría Académica

 More participative learning
 Co-responsability in the learning process
 Proactive role in the learning process
 Understand the importance of formation vs. information
 better admission standards
Vicerrectoría Académica

 Better technological and computational infrastructure
 Better sports and cultural facilities
 Design and construction of new spaces for learning
Vicerrectoría Académica

Tecnologico de Monterrey system to administer the assessment of academic programs
• One of the main challenges for an institution that is not familiar con the new approach of the accreditation systems is to define and assess the program and learning outcomes
• In order to confront this challenge, Tec de Mty developed a system for the administration and follow up of the assessment of learning and program outcomes for all the programs in all of the campus.
Vicerrectoría Académica

 Accreditation processes represent a great mechanism for continuous improvement and encourage innovation
 Emphasis is on results: the success of the graduates
 Focuses on learning and developing skills of students
 The main barrier is the resistance to cultural change that this implies in our institutions
 Accreditation shouldn’t be the only mean of quality assurance for the program. The institution should always be looking different ways to make ensure that it has a program of excellence.
Vicerrectoría Académica