Undergraduate Programme Accreditation

What is Outcome Based Education (OBE)

• A systematic approach in curriculum delivery that focuses on a set of intended goals.
• Based on student-centred learning philosophy that focuses on empirically measuring student performance, which is called outcomes.
• An approach that fosters the spirit of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)

          OBE focuses on student learning by:

• Using learning outcome statements to make explicit what the student is expected to be able to know, understand or do
• Providing learning activities that will help the student to reach these outcomes
• Assessing the extent to which the student meets these outcomes through the use of explicit assessment criteria

What is PEO, PO, CO, and CQI

• Programme Educational Objectives (PEO) describe the career and professional accomplishments that the programme would prepare the graduates to achieve in a few years (3-5 yrs) after their graduation
• Programme Outcomes (PO) are developed to support the PEOs, they describe attributes that the students are expected to attain at the point of graduation
• Course Outcomes (CO):
  • Outcomes that are expected of the course and what students should be able to do as the course progress
  • These statements are course-specific and related to the course content
  • COs are linked to specific POs and thus serve as evidence of the achievement of PO
  • COs are assessed and evaluated through various measurement tools
• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI):
  • CQI is the core of OBE
  • Assessment and evaluation processes provide critical information to faculty (lecturers) and administrators on the effectiveness of the design, delivery, and direction of an educational program …. the CQI process
  • Improvements based on feedback from evaluations will close the system loop and the process will continue year after year

Why OBE

• Advocated by Washington Accord (WA)
• Accredited Engineering Graduates by BEM are recognized by other signatory countries in WA
• As of July 2009, OBE implementation is a mandatory requirement for engineering programs seeking accreditation from EAC / BEM
• The curriculum must be designed with specific outcomes to prepare graduates to meet the industry needs at entry level
• Need to take inputs from stakeholders

For more information about EAC, please visit:

• Washington Accord Signatories
• Engineering Accreditation Council