The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), a professional accrediting organization, reviews educational programs. The ABET accreditation process, a voluntary, non-governmental process of peer review, helps assure quality in educational programs. ABET-accredited educational programs must meet certain defined standards.

Accreditation serves to notify ...

-parents and prospective students that a program has met minimum standards;
-faculty, deans, and administrators of a program's strengths and weaknesses and of ways to improve the program;
-employers that graduates are prepared to begin professional practice;
-taxpayers that their funds are spent well;
-the public that graduates are aware of public health and safety considerations.

The present accreditation process requires each educational program to participate in a loop of self-examination and improvement:

1.Definition of desired program objectives and outcomes.
2.Collection and evaluation of data regarding how well objectives and outcomes are being reached.
3.Formulation and pursuit of appropriate means of better accomplishing objectives and outcomes.
4.Repetition of the process beginning with re-evaluation of objectives and outcomes.