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How the Academy of Industrial Hygiene Joined the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
By Lawrence W. Whitehead, PhD, CIH
One of the fundamental, primary missions of the Academy of Industrial Hygiene is accreditation of academic programs in IH. It has been more than 20 years since the academy began pursuing accreditation as a core activity, so the council would like to offer a short history of high points in AIH involvement in accreditation, its purpose, and current activities, including an outline of how the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) plays a key role in facilitating this.
The Academy of Industrial Hygiene (formerly the American Academy of Industrial Hygiene) was formed as an entity within the American Board of Industrial Hygiene and was initially made up of all certified industrial hygienists in good standing with the ABIH. The academy is governed by a council, effectively a board of directors, elected by the AIH members. By the early 1980s, discussions within the AIH council identified accreditation of academic degree programs in industrial hygiene (which did not exist) as one key activity indicative of the development and standing of the profession. Initial thinking was aimed at direct accreditation, by the academy, of masters degree programs. At least one trial accreditation visit was conducted at the University of North Carolina. Efforts began, at that time, to determine how to affiliate the desired effort with an existing accrediting body.
ABET has been the principal accrediting body for engineering education in the United States for many years, having begun in the 1930s. A commission within ABET for “related” education areas was formed in the mid-1970s. The academy council approached ABET about serving as the umbrella and management organization for industrial hygiene accreditation and ABET offered to manage industrial hygiene accreditation through its Related Accreditation Commission (now called the Applied Science Accreditation Commission, ASAC).
The academy formed an Academic Accreditation Committee (AAC) to develop the technical industrial hygiene criteria for accreditation and to select and train accreditation visitors. The AIH was made a member society among those making up ASAC and held seats on the board of ASAC. When the academy merged with the American Industrial Hygiene Association, AIHA took over the formal role as the member society for IH accreditation, with all duties and responsibilities continuing to be conducted by the academy AAC within the overall AIHA structure. AIH members have served as chairs of ASAC and AIHA and also has a seat on the ABET board of directors. Industrial hygiene is one of the largest areas of accreditation within ASAC, by the number of programs accredited. Safety and health physics academic programs are also accredited through ABET.
Since joining ABET, the academy AAC has been the corresponding professional society for IH accreditation and writes and maintains the specific criteria for accreditation of industrial hygiene programs. ABET also has general criteria and procedures which apply to all programs accredited through ABET. At any time, the current general criteria and the program criteria for industrial hygiene may be found on the ABET website. Under “Applied Science Programs”, select the applicable criteria (pdf) document. The program criteria for industrial hygiene have been through several revisions (as well as numerous minor changes) by the academy AAC since first published in the late 1980s. Criteria for bachelors programs were first published in the early 1990s and continue to be available.
As of January 2007, 39 programs at 28 schools are accredited in industrial hygiene through ABET. These include six bachelors programs at five schools, and 33 masters degree programs at 23 schools. ABET does not accredit doctoral programs. Several schools have more than one accredited program by virtue of having more than one degree or distinct major track which meets the IH accreditation requirements. One school, Purdue University, has both an accredited bachelors and masters program. Several schools have two or more masters programs which are accredited, and one school, the University of Northern Alabama, has two accredited bachelors programs. There are eleven schools with safety accreditation through ABET’s ASAC; six for health physics; and none yet in environmental, health, and safety.
The accreditation effort is financially supported jointly by the Academy and AIHA as the corresponding society and the schools which are accredited. In 2006-2007, the Academy will pay slightly more than $25,000 to ABET, which ultimately is paid from the AIHA budget. Each accredited program pays a fee for an accreditation visit that is approximately $9,000 and an annual maintenance fee of several hundred dollars per program. The visit fee is paid at each accrediting visit--a maximum six-year interval.
There is often confusion about exactly what role is played in this overall process by ABET versus the academy. The academy AAC selects all industrial hygiene program evaluator visitors. All must be AIH members i.e. CIHs in good standing with the AIH and AIHA. Until 2006, training consisted of a four-hour session at AIHce followed by a visit as an observer. As of this year, the application and training process for program evaluators is changing, with more information obtained from applicants and a two-to-three day training workshop to be held.
Once qualified, program evaluators make no more than one visit per year (often not every year) depending on the number of schools being reviewed in a given year versus the number of active evaluators. The chair of the AAC and the chair of each school’s evaluation team (who is a member of the ABET’s ASAC) consult in selecting evaluators from the available pool. The academy AAC can propose changes to the industrial hygiene program accreditation criteria which, after ratification by the academy council, will be incorporated into the following year’s accreditation rules.
ABET maintains the general accreditation rules which, while not referring to industrial hygiene specifically, stipulate a great deal about the review and continuing assessment processes that schools must undertake to become accredited and to maintain accreditation. This is an extensive effort of continual assessment of published educational outcomes and objectives on the part of accredited programs. To say that the “ABET criteria” are to be met, or to discuss content of the “ABET criteria”, does not fully express the reality. The technical program criteria for industrial hygiene are ultimately written and revised by the IH profession through the AAC. The procedures and general criteria are developed and conducted by ABET.
In summary, academic accreditation for industrial hygiene programs was initiated by the academy roughly 20 years ago as a needed core activity for the profession. The AIH made the decision to undertake accreditation under the umbrella of ABET, which has decades of experience in accreditation of engineering and related programs. ABET procedures and general accreditation criteria are followed, while the specific IH program criteria are written and maintained by the AIH, published and evaluated through ABET. The accredited schools have worked hard to achieve and maintain accreditation, to establish and deliver high-quality IH academic programs under the ABET standard, while leaving substantial flexibility for programs to customize their areas of emphasis.
Whitehead, PhD, CIH, is with the Division of Environmental & Occupational Health University of Texas School of Public Health.