Accreditation of Engineering degrees: A complex configuration in the institutionalization of the policy

Abstract

The Higher Education Law (No24521/95) legalized evaluation and university accreditation practices in Argentina. The article 43 of the norm establishes that degrees corresponding to professions regulated by the State, whose exercise might compromise public interest, require periodic accreditation from CONEAU (National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation). As academic production about higher education evaluation shows, a period of resistance from university stakeholders is followed by another period characterized by a progressive institucionalization and legitimization of accreditation policies. This paper focuses on these institucionalization conditions considering multiple analytical dimensions: governmental agenda, disciplinary culture, learning model and the role played by intermediate organism. Results are based on a research placed at the Faculty of Engineering at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. This faculty turned out a group of programmes for evaluation by CONEAU on the mandatory call in 2002. For this research we used documental sources and interviews with key informers of the institution