ABET – An Update
Willis King, ABET Director
Feb. 17, 2007
Two Parts
• A summary of the board meeting on
Oct. 28, 2006
• Pre and post meeting activities of IEEE
VP of EAB and the IEEE ABET board
directors.
ABET Board Meeting
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Review of strategic issues
PAVE
New financial model
Budget authority of ABET executive
committee
• Harmonization
• ECEI
Review of strategic issues
• President-elect Clark summarized the feedback from the board
in its March meeting. Issues considered require immediate
attention are:
» Accreditation process requirements lead institutions to
question the perceived value of accreditation
» Globalization of the professions results in the increased
need for
• Authentication of educational credentials
• Quality assurance for educational programs in other countries
• Portability of educational credentials
» Emerging technologies, changing disciplines and the
blurring of boundaries among technological disciplines
challenge traditional approaches to educational delivery
and quality assurance
PAVE
•
A motion is passed to establish a PAVE
Committee that will report to the Board, at
the March 2007 meeting, on the following:
(1) Composition of the decision-making body for
PAVE action, establishment and documentation
of decision-making procedures, rules, reporting
relationships, and other pertinent parameters.
(2) Financial impact on ABET, ABET member
societies, and other affected constituencies
(An attempt to ask for an analysis of visitors
failure rate was overruled by the chair )
New Financial Model
• Responsibilities for Costs
• Members’ Assessments
• Institutional Fees
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR COSTS
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Indirect costs will be allocated to all ABET activities.
The Institutions will support the direct and indirect costs of
Accreditation.
The ABET Members will support the direct and indirect costs
of Governance.
Professional Services such as workshops, the ABET annual
meeting, publications, etc. should set fees so as to recover,
at least, direct and indirect costs. When competitive pricing
allows, a margin should be added to the fees that would then
help fund other activities.
Professional Services such as presentations, brochures,
press releases and the like, for which there is no direct
offsetting revenue, shall be supported by the Members.
The direct costs of ECEI shall be funded by fees paid by the
applicants for credentials evaluation. The Members shall
support the indirect costs.
ASSESSMENTS:
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A Member's annual assessment is calculated based on a
combination of the Member's number of Board seats and the
number of programs for which the Member has curricular
responsibility. The Finance Committee should consider
methods for relieving disproportionate costs for large and
small societies.
Members will pay a fee for each Board member seat.
Associate Members will pay a fee equal to 25% of the
Member fee.
Members will be assessed on the basis of the number of
programs for which they have curricular responsibility. A
tiered schedule will be established with a cap for those
Members with curricular responsibility for over 300
programs.
Members with seats on a commission for which they have no
curricular responsibility will pay a surcharge.
INSTITUTIONAL FEES
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Institutions will pay both an evaluation fee (for visits and
reports) as well as an annual maintenance fee.
The annual maintenance fee is intended to cover the direct
and indirect costs of accreditation operations (such as
commission meetings, personnel expenses and overhead)
exclusive of the direct and indirect costs associated with the
evaluation visits. Total revenue from annual maintenance
fees will increase, but will facilitate better budgeting by the
institutions.
The annual maintenance fee will include a nominal fixed
amount based on the number of programs at the institution,
as well as an amount based on the number of graduates from
each of the programs in the prior year. The nominal fixed
amount insures that all programs, including those small
programs that may have no, or very few, graduates in a given
year, contribute to the costs of accreditation activities.
INSTITUTIONAL FEES
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Institutions will pay an evaluation fee for
visits that is based on the number of
programs being evaluated, not the number
of visitors. The evaluation fee will be
calculated to include the direct and indirect
costs of the visits and to contribute to the
costs of accreditation operations.
The evaluation fee for interim reports will
be 1/2 of the evaluation fee for a visit to a
program. Each program requiring an
interim report will be charged.
New financial model
• The board accepts in principle a new
financial model proposal by an ad hoc
committee of ten (Mike Lockerd, a former
IEEE director is a member)
• two versions of the 2007/2008 ABET budget
will be prepared and submitted for Board
review by 15 January 2007:
Version 1:
A budget using the current financial
model
Version 2:
A budget using the new proposed
financial model
Budget authority of ABET executive
committee
• The ABET Board amended the proposal and
limited the authority of the Executive
Committee with respect to approval of
budgets for special projects, the limit is
$25,000 for each project per year.
Harmonization
• Further work is needed, the issue will
be brought back next March.
ECEI
• ABET CREDENTIALS EVALUATION SERVICE
(ECEI) discontinued. NCEES will take over
the service.
Pre Oct. 2006 meeting activities
•
IEEE VP of EAB and the IEEE ABET board directors
communicated with ABET leadership on the subject
of improving the operation and governance of
ABET. Last September, we proposed in the form of
a motion asking the administration:
1. To brief the Board on the financial status of ABET on a
bimonthly basis
2. To conduct two teleconferences of the Board at midpoint
between board meetings
3. To post draft meeting minutes 15 days after the meeting
4. To report major project progress two annually in between
board meeting
5. To notify board members on invitations to all major ABET
meetings, symposia and other events
6. To ask ABET legal counsel to brief the board members on
their fiduciary duty and legal obligations.
Pre Oct. 2006 meeting activities
• ABET President responded by:
» Promising to carry out items 3 and 6
» Referring to committees to study the
practicality and financial impact of items
1,2,4 and 5.
Post Oct. 2006 meeting activities
• In January 2007, we wrote to the
president of ABET on
» The apparent failure to accomplish item 3
as promised
» The concerns on the operation and future
status of PAVE
» The legal limitation of IEEE on financing
international accreditation
Post Oct. 2006 meeting activities
• A meeting of the IEEE VP of EAB and
ABET directors with the leadership of
ABET is scheduled on Feb 26, 2007 to
resolve some of the issues.