Towards the Attainment of the Student/Program Outcome on Ethical and Professional Responsibility

This paper describes the current review and revision of some Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria, in particular, the student outcome on ethical and professional responsibility. The proposed changes on the said outcome have raised deep concern in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Liberal Education/Engineering and Society Division.

The ABET statement of the outcome which is “to develop the ability of the student to understand ethical and professional responsibility” is merely adopted as one of the program/student outcomes of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Technological Council Accreditation Commission Board for Engineering and Technology (PTC-ACBET).

Based on the observations/findings of the authors, most institutions which have shifted from input-based into outcomes-based
education (OBE) in their engineering programs need a model syllabus for courses where the topic engineering ethics or professional ethics is embedded. Hence, the authors present as the course syllabus that they use in teaching the topics in engineering ethics which are integrated in the course required by CHED for engineering programs with board examination “Engineering Law, Contracts and Ethics.” The authors share as well some teaching and learning activities and assessment tools which they use in the course and find effective.