ABET Accreditation for Online Engineering Programs

See the ABET-accredited online engineering programs →

What ABET accredits

ABET is a nonprofit organization that accredits college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering and engineering technology. It accredits programs — a specific program title, at a degree level, at the campuses and in the delivery formats its review covered — not whole universities. A university can hold ABET accreditation for its campus mechanical engineering bachelor's and offer an online engineering degree that ABET has not reviewed.

EAC, ETAC, CAC: the commissions

• EAC — Engineering Accreditation Commission: engineering programs. Many state engineering boards look for an EAC-accredited bachelor's as the standard education path toward licensure.
• ETAC — Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission: engineering technology programs. ETAC accreditation is never labelled engineering accreditation here, and engineering technology degrees are listed separately.
• CAC — Computing Accreditation Commission: computing programs (for example computer science); some software engineering programs are reviewed under EAC.

A commission is never assumed from a degree's name: we show the commission ABET's own record names.

How online delivery shows up in ABET's records

ABET's public database lists, for each accredited program, the campuses or locations covered and a distance-delivery characteristic (all content, half or more of the content, or less than half delivered at a distance). We count the online pathway as covered only when ABET's record lists an online location or delivery of all content at a distance. Otherwise the program page says that ABET's record does not list the online pathway, and you should ask the school whether the online version is included. A new online pathway is never assumed to be covered.

Master's and PhD programs

ABET accredits very few master's programs and no doctoral programs. In our directory 0 graduate programs are matched to an ABET record. A master's or PhD without ABET accreditation is not inferior on that account, and an undergraduate program's accreditation is never applied to a graduate program at the same school.

Status, dates and pending reviews

We show ABET's accreditation dates and the year of the program's next comprehensive review as ABET publishes them. Candidate or pending status is not accreditation. A university page that mentions ABET without a matching record in ABET's database does not create an accreditation label; an editor reviews it.

ABET and licensure

Licensure is decided by each state's engineering board. Many boards treat an EAC-accredited engineering bachelor's as the standard education requirement and set different paths for other degrees, including engineering technology. A master's degree does not automatically resolve every undergraduate education requirement. Check your own state board's rules — the school's state does not decide them. See engineering licensure and online degrees and ABET accreditation for online programs.

Institutional accreditation is different

Every school in this directory holds institutional accreditation from a recognized accreditor (recorded from the U.S. Department of Education's DAPIP database and shown on each school profile). Institutional accreditation covers the university; ABET accreditation covers specific programs.