ACCREDITATION IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Jochim H. Nagel, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Stuttgart, Germany

Accreditation of engineering, technology and applied science programs, i.e. the granting of the authority to an institution or program to provide qualified education in a specific subject matter by a competent body, is a well established procedure in many countries. Even in those parts of the world, where no accreditation agencies exist, the US American Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) with its global range of activities can provide the service of an accreditation-like evaluation offering recognition as "substantially equivalent" to an accredited program in the US. Continuing globalization of economies and science calls for harmonization of educational programs, especially within Europe, where mobility and thus mutual acceptance of professional degrees has become a major issue. At first glance, the easiest way to achieve such harmonization in Europe seems to be to just expand ABET's authority, or to establish ABET-like structures and procedures. In reality, however, it is not that easy. Difficulties result from the diversity of partially incompatible educational systems, as well as from the exceptionality of the young, highly dynamic discipline of Biomedical Engineering which offers a whole range of different qualifications and directions, related to various engineering specialty matters and which, as part of the so-called life sciences, is reaching far into neighboring sciences such as medicine, biology and biochemistry. Adding to the problem are the many established programs within the classical engineering disciplines offering specialization in BME up to different levels of qualification or competency.

A crucial issue in setting up accreditation procedures has so far been the establishment of minimum requirements for BME programs. These have to include educational prerequisites for entering a BME program, course duration, basic and advanced biomedical engineering topics including mandatory and optional subjects, the ratio of lectures/practice/laboratory work and the minimum requirements for the independent work of the student. Due to the diversity and incompatibility of the various national educational systems, such an approach would, however, be obsolete from the beginning, if international harmonization and mutual recognition of degrees are taken into account. As a solution to this problem, accreditation must be outcome or competency based. Instead of imposing curricula, courses, duration and prerequisites to enter the programmes, the outcome, i.e. the aptitude of students graduating from these programmes will be the factor deciding on accreditation. Nevertheless, recommendations still need to be established for topics, courses and other contents of educational programmes in order to achieve the required outcome. The nature and rapid development of BME requires the definition of the various levels of competency, i.e. a number of broadly accepted criteria, depending on the specific professional or technical, undergraduate, graduate or PhD degree, or speaking in terms of future European structures, one, two or three cycle programs. Prerequisite, of course, is the exact definition of the range of BME which requires permanent updating.

Though much of our interest is directed towards global harmonization of educational standards, the current focus of activities must be on European BME accreditation. Europe is changing at a very fast pace politically, economically and socially and, naturally, science and education are fundamentally influenced by these developments. Traditional European structures of education, research, and research funding, which are strictly national issues, are becoming more and more obsolete in a unified and harmonized Europe where mobility is mandatory, and need to be replaced or at least supplemented by structures providing the compatibility of systems. Future developments are determined right now and that does apply to biomedical engineering, its future development and its significance, too. It is imperative, that the European community of biomedical engineers is participating decisively in any and all decisions touching their profession, and it has to be ensured, that these decisions are not made by others without regard to our interests. It must also be made sure, that the evolving system includes or at least remains open to those countries which are not or not yet members of the EU. Therefore, all European societies representing biomedical engineering, medical physics, clinical engineering, medical informatics, artificial organs, biomaterials etc. must address the related issues and must work together to realize the required changes in a way that is beneficial to our profession and thus to society. In response to the political requirements, which are most appropriately characterized by the Bologna Declaration, the European BME community must address the issues of higher education, i.e. quality control, harmonization, and accreditation. The current European situation regarding quality control of educational programs is characterized by the existing organization according to ISO 9000, while at the horizon we have the competing and/or supplementary organization of Quality Assurance and European Harmonization of University Programs complying with the Bologna declaration. With the ISO 9000 structure, the European Commission is responsible for questions of quality on the European level. On the national level, the authority is with the national accreditation councils. The accreditation council recruits or nominates and accredits the accreditation agency/authority/institution which is responsible for the accreditation of academic programs. The accreditation agency is internally organized in so-called sector committees, which are responsible for the individual disciplines or professions. As the ISO 9000 structure is increasingly considered less important or even obsolete for the future, it is the structure for Quality Assurance and European Harmonization of University Programs that will be developed politically to take over all or at least the main responsibility for questions of education, accreditation and certification. In this structure, the European Commission as the responsible body for quality control will be replaced by a council or an association of the national bodies/ministries for education (and research in most cases), which is actually the body that authored the Bologna declaration.

With the given structures, which at this time do not have any BME representation, at least on the European level, it becomes apparent where and how the BME societies or a recommendable European Federation of BME Societies and its national member societies will have to get into the loop. Unless the national societies set up their own accreditation agencies, they have to become members of or be represented in the responsible accreditation agencies, and should - possibly through these agencies - be represented in the national accreditation councils, whereas a future umbrella association of European BME Societies, whatever the name and structure may be, has to provide the input to the European Commission (ISO 9000) and the assembly or association of national ministries in the evolving new structure. It seems obvious that with the acceptance of the BME societies in the national and European bodies, which are responsible for education, accreditation and certification, the doors will also be open for further input to the European Commission regarding research funding in the field of Biomedical Engineering, which is one of the main goals of the current European BME activities.