WORKSHOP: “REVISION OF ACREDITATION STANDARDS FOR ENGINEERING CAREERS IN ARGENTINA”, OCTOBER 8 - 9, 2009 - SAN RAFAEL, MENDOZA

The Workshop “Revision of Acreditation Standards for Engineering Careers in Argentina”, organized by CONFEDI (Federal Council of Engineering Deans) was part of the schedule of preparatory activities for ENGINEERING 2010 – ARGENTINA. This important event took place in the Main Hall of the College of Sciences Applied to Industry of the National University of Cuyo, last October 8-9, 2009.
 
During these two days, deans and academic secretaries of Engineering Colleges of several universities of Argentina  were invited to make a revision of accreditation standards for these careers.

The opening of the meeting was in charge of Roberto Battistón, Dean of the College of Sciences Applied to Industry; Carlos Bonetti, President of CONFEDI; Luis María Fernández, Vice-president of CONEAU (National Commission for University Evaluation and Accreditation) and Luis Di Benedetto, President of the Argentine Center of Engineers.

In his lecture, Engineer Di Benedetto stressed the importance of the World Congress in 2010 and invited to participate in it by submitting papers in the areas which will be considered in the event. He thanked CONFEDI for its contribution to the realization of preparatory activities and pointed out the strengthening of the relations between both institutions.

Also present in these plenary conferences were Mariano Calbi, in charge of Engineering – Graduate CONEAU, María Victoria Gerrini and Daniel Morano, both from the Secretariat of University Policies for  the National Ministry of Education. They dealt with the topics: “Quality standards for engineering careers: design, wording and application. Technical and methodological aspects”, “The quality of engineering education: possible lessons  out of the experience of career accreditation” and “Articulation – Admission – Permanence. Towards a definition of a multiannual project”, respectively.

As representative of the World Congress and Exhibition ENGINEERING 2010 – ARGENTINA, Engineer Luis Vaca Arenaza, President of its Thematic Chapter “Engineering education for sustainable development”, delivered a speech. He began by pointing out the guiding ideas of ENGINEERING 2010-ARGENTINA: to join the engineering community fostering the dialogue of all the sectors of the regional and international communities, and establishing a development that ensure the needs of today without endangering the capacity of future generations to meet their own needs. “To achieve this, it is necessary to work with the productive forces in search of sustainable development, contributing to the up-date and diffusion of knowledge”, said Vaca Arenaza during his lecture. He also considered that it is necessary to intensify engineers’ international commitment to the compliance of the United Nation program: “Millennium Development Goals”, agreed upon in 2000 in New York.