Accreditation

Accreditation of university programs is required to maintain high standards of software engineering education. Accreditation guarantees that students who graduate from an accredited program will have acquired the basic knowledge of the field. It also ensures that they share a common working vocabulary and common assumptions about good ways to do their work. In the United States, engineering programs are accredited by ABET/EAC, which won't certify a program until it has graduated its first class. Once the first program receives accreditation, many additional universities will likely begin offering software engineering undergraduate programs almost immediately.

One difference between computer science and engineering is the accreditation requirement placed upon faculty who teach those subjects. The criteria for accrediting computer science programs in the United States require faculty to make "scholarly contributions" to computer science, but they don't require industry experience.^[8] In contrast, the ABET/EAC criteria for accrediting engineering programs in the United States state that "non-academic engineering experience" and registration as professional engineers should be considered in faculty evaluations.^[9] The CEAB (Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board) uses similar criteria. In professional education, it is important that many of the teachers be qualified and working in the profession doctors teach doctors; lawyers teach lawyers, and so on.

These differences between engineering and computer science accreditation criteria do not imply that one approach is right and the other is wrong. Their objectives are simply different. Science programs prepare students to conduct research; engineering programs prepare students to participate in industry. Software has a pervasive need for people who have been well prepared to work in industry. Undergraduate degree programs in software engineering are proving to be popular both with students and with the companies that hire them.