Chapitre 4 : Credits and accreditation in the U.S.A. and Europe: towards a framework for transnational engineering degrees

14 pagesDeveloping international or multi-national programs is a critical and challenging issue for the future of engineering education. The purpose of such programs is both to encourage mobility of students in an inter-cultural multi-linguistic perspective, and the recognition of degrees and programs in a wider perspective than the national one in order to encourage the mobility of workers. For about twenty years, the European Commission, through several programs, in particular ERASMUS programmes, has implemented some tools, which are a first stage in this direction (e.g., ECTS and European Qualification Framework project). In order to put the reflection at a broader level, this chapter is the result of an Atlantis U.S.-European project aiming at giving some directions in order to set a U.S.-European degree in Real-Time Software Engineering. This chapter provides information and analysis of academic credit and program assessment and accreditation which will assist in the development of transatlantic engineering programs