For a wider list of disciplines with programmatic accreditation, including several of those listed by earlier responders, take a look at the CHEA (Council for Higher Education Accreditation) website <http://www.chea.org/** Directories/special.asp>, the US umbrella organization with oversight of regional institutional accreditation, as well as a variety of discipline-based accreditation efforts.
Not all program accreditation efforts appear to have a CHEA association. For instance, chemistry programs are accredited through ACS and ACS does not appear on the CHEA webpage. On the other hand, engineering which is handled by ABET does. I’d like to suggest that ecologists interested in developing an accreditation system for biology step cautiously. There’s been quite a bit of discussion over the past two decades regarding establishment of foundations and standards in the discipline—not all of which have been favorable to ecology, evolution, organismal biology, and natural history. George Middendorf Biology Howard University Date: Mon, 28 May 2012 08:53:25 -0400 > From: Tamara Cushing <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Non-Majors Biology > > Forestry has undergraduate accreditation > > Tammy > > Tamara L. Cushing, Ph.D. > Assistant Professor, Forest Management and Economics > Clemson University > > ________________________________________ > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV. > = > UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Jane Shevtsov [[email protected]] > Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2012 11:31 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Non-Majors Biology > > What disciplines other than engineering have departmental > accreditation at the undergraduate level? > > Jane > > On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 2:47 PM, malcolm McCallum > <[email protected]> wrote: > > The problem with biology education today is that there are: > > 1) no standards for what the major is > > 2) no accreditation governing what a department should comprise > > > > Europe now has accreditation for the discipline and if the US does not > > follow suit you can watch rapidly as we not only fall behind in > > biology, but basically fall like a rock in stature. > > > > Too many departments just wing it at the whim of the administrations' > fol= > ly. > > Accreditation provides the departments with significant support and > > legitimacy in the face of those administrations that generally care a > > lot about money and little about quality or students. > > > > There are more of those than we care to admit. > > > > Look, we can't even agree whether biodiversity concepts belong in an > > intro to bio class. > > I find this not only disheartening but also frightening. Where else > > they going to learn it, English? > > Most schools don't have an EVS course, and many never will. > > > > Malcolm > > > >
