ABET

1
ABET An Update

• Willis King, ABET Director
• Feb. 17, 2007

2
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.

3
ABET Board Meeting

• Review of strategic issues
• PAVE
• New financial model
• Budget authority of ABET executive committee
• Harmonization
• ECEI

4
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

5
PAVE

• A motion is passed to establish a PAVE Committee
  that will report to the Board, at the March 2007
  meeting, on the following
• Composition of the decision-making body for PAVE
  action, establishment and documentation of
  decision-making procedures, rules, reporting
  relationships, and other pertinent parameters.
• 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 )

6
New Financial Model

• Responsibilities for Costs
• Members Assessments
• Institutional Fees

7
RESPONSIBILITIES FOR COSTS

• 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.

8
ASSESSMENTS

• 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.

9
INSTITUTIONAL FEES

• 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.

10
INSTITUTIONAL FEES

• 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.

11
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

12
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.

13
Harmonization

• Further work is needed, the issue will be brought
  back next March.

14
ECEI

• ABET CREDENTIALS EVALUATION SERVICE (ECEI)
  discontinued. NCEES will take over the service.

15
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
• To brief the Board on the financial status of
  ABET on a bimonthly basis
• To conduct two teleconferences of the Board at
  midpoint between board meetings
• To post draft meeting minutes 15 days after the
  meeting
• To report major project progress two annually in
  between board meeting
• To notify board members on invitations to all
  major ABET meetings, symposia and other events
• To ask ABET legal counsel to brief the board
  members on their fiduciary duty and legal
  obligations.

16
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.

17
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

18
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.