USask Engineering hosts accreditation visit

While classrooms, labs and studying are back into full swing this fall - many faculty, staff and students have been busy behind the scenes in preparation for our accreditation visit, which occurred virtually from October 31 to November 2.

Engineering programs in Canada are reviewed by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB), a standing committee of Engineers Canada, the umbrella organization for the provincial engineering regulators.

To maintain accreditation for their programs, engineering schools must follow the CEAB criteria and procedures and undergo periodic reviews and site visits, which are scheduled for every six years.

Accreditation is critical to our success as a college and institution. We are proud that our programs have been accredited since 1965.

To prepare for the visit, data was collected for every core and elective course in our eight engineering undergraduate programs during the snapshot year (2019-2020). Faculty across campus who teach core and elective courses submitted required documentation through the Course Material Box Submission Site. Each program has an accreditation lead who coordinated roughly 200 pages of documentation showing how our courses and programs fit together.

There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into the accreditation process and visit and I want to give a special thank you to all those involved.

The visit this week served as a reminder of how proud I am of our college, our Thorough community and those who bring so much vibrancy, dedication and enthusiasm to USask Engineering. Every day, I see and experience the exceptional work we are doing and being able to share that with the accreditation review committee was a true delight.

I want to take a moment to celebrate all the hard work that was done for this visit and say a special thank you and a tremendous "job well done." The college is indebted to the hard work of Aleksandra Pajic, Programs and Projects Officer and Dr. Bruce Sparling, Associate Dean Academics, for their leadership and coordination of the accreditation visit.

The CEAB provided a preliminary report to the college as the virtual visit wrapped up this week. It will provide a final report this summer.