Accreditation Policy and Procedures Committee

The Accreditation Policy and Procedures Committee (APPC) has responsibility for interfacing with ABET, which is an organization that accredits postsecondary, degree-granting programs offered by regionally accredited institutions in the United States and nationally accredited institutions outside the United States and thus supports excellence in education worldwide. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is 1 of 34 member societies that set policy, develop strategy, and conduct accreditation activities worldwide on behalf of their professions.

Within ABET, ANS is the lead society that determines the criteria for assessing engineering programs that include “nuclear,” “radiological,” or similar modifiers in their titles, and the APPC reviews and updates these criteria periodically. Further, the APPC recommends individuals for appointment to the ABET Board of Delegation, Area Delegations, and Commissions of ABET and nominates trained program evaluators (PEVs) to review nuclear engineering and nuclear engineering technology programs at academic institutions throughout the country and the world. The APPC recruits new PEVs and supports their training with ABET.

Member Responsibilities:

• Attend APPC meetings at each of the national ANS conferences and participate in conference calls, as needed.
• Develop policies, procedures, and criteria for accrediting nuclear, radiological, and similar academic programs in engineering and technology.
• Respond to questions, surveys, and issues raised by ABET and provide recommendations to the ANS Board, as appropriate.
• Mentor ANS members to become PEVs.
• Potentially serve as an ABET PEV.
• Potentially, with the appropriate experience, serve on an ABET Board/Commission.

Helpful Traits for Members:

• Interest in undergraduate engineering education, especially related to nuclear engineering, radiological engineering, and health physics.
• Interest in and knowledge of program evaluation procedures and criteria.
• Familiarity with accreditation of nuclear educational programs.
• Familiarity with ABET policies.

Learn more about ABET Accreditation and how to become a PEV.