Department of Information Systems, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.
PLoS One. 2020 Sep 17;15(9):e0239140. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239140. eCollection 2020.
The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredits the tertiary education programs in the areas of applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ABET offers accreditation in the United States and other regions in the world that lack such entities such as Gulf Cooperative Counties (GCC). Though ABET accreditation is voluntary, graduates of the ABET-accredited programs are considered equivalent in knowledge, behaviors, and attitude with global standards. The process of ABET accreditation takes months or years depending upon the gap with readiness and resources. The objective of this study is to compile and prioritize the list of critical success factors (CSFs) to commit resources optimally for sustained academic quality assurance and ABET accreditation. The triangulation research designed has been employed. Firstly, the observation of the ABET accreditation process of multiple programs at King Khalid University (KKU) helped in identifying 11 CSFs in three categories namely Program design and execution, Quality culture and excellence, and Institutional infrastructure and support. Further, these CSFs have been explored in the literature in the area of ABET accreditation. Finally, the research employs a fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (Fuzzy AHP) and full consistency method (FUCOM) to rank the relative importance of these CSFs and their dimensions for sustained academic quality assurance and ABET accreditation. The incorporation of these CSFs will help institutions in the GCC and other regions to get their academic programs ABET-accredited in an optimal manner.
工程和技术认证委员会（ABET）认证应用科学和自然科学、计算机、工程和工程技术领域的高等教育项目。ABET 在世界上缺乏此类实体的地区（如海湾合作委员会 (GCC)）提供认证。虽然 ABET 认证是自愿的，但 ABET 认证项目的毕业生被认为在知识、行为和态度方面与全球标准相当。ABET 认证的过程需要数月或数年，具体取决于准备情况和资源的差距。本研究的目的是编制和确定关键成功因素 (CSF) 的优先级，以优化资源投入，确保持续的学术质量保证和 ABET 认证。采用了三角研究设计。首先，观察了 King Khalid University (KKU) 的多个项目的 ABET 认证过程，有助于确定三个类别的 11 个 CSF，即计划设计和执行、质量文化和卓越性以及机构基础设施和支持。此外，还在 ABET 认证领域的文献中探讨了这些 CSF。最后，研究采用模糊层次分析法 (Fuzzy AHP) 和完全一致性方法 (FUCOM) 对这些 CSF 及其维度对于持续的学术质量保证和 ABET 认证的相对重要性进行排名。这些 CSF 的纳入将帮助 GCC 及其他地区的机构以最佳方式获得其学术项目的 ABET 认证。
