TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Holistic Quality Assurance Framework to Acquire National and International
Educational Accreditation: The Case of Saudi Arabia
AU - Taleb, Ahmad AU - Namoun, Abdallah AU - Benaida, Mohamed 
JO  - Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
VL  - 14
IS  - 18
SP  - 6685
EP  - 6698
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1816-949x
DO  - jeasci.2019.6685.6698
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=jeasci.2019.6685.6698
KW  - Quality assurance in higher education
KW  -national and international accreditation
KW  -continuous
improvement in education
KW  -engineering programs
KW  -framework
KW  -implementation
AB  - Quality assurance and accreditation of academic programs have received considerable attention by
the higher education authorities worldwide. Saudi Arabia, for instance, necessitates the computing and
engineering programs to fulfill both the local (NCAAA) and international (ABET) accreditation requirements
which is often a complex endeavor. In fact, acquiring both accreditations simultaneously is exacerbated by
several factors such as the use of different terminologies, redundancy of various tasks and activities and
differing philosophies to assess the overall quality of the educational programs. This study details a holistic
quality assurance framework that guides the computing and engineering programs in acquiring the local and
international accreditation. The framework encompasses all aspects of an educational program including inputs,
processes, outputs and outcomes as well as the continuous improvement quality cycle and improvement plan.
To this end, the study details 11 shared accreditation tasks and 9 different terminologies used in both
accreditations, aligns 11 local accreditation standards with 8 international accreditation criteria which are
assigned to dedicated work groups and maps ABET student outcomes to the five NCAAA learning domains.
The proposed framework is adopted and implemented by three computing and engineering programs in Saudi
Arabia and high satisfaction levels of its implementation are show cased.
ER  -