Austin Peay State University’s computer science bachelor’s degree programs earn highly sought ABET accreditation

Clarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) bachelor’s degree programs in computer information systems, computer information technology, and computer science have been accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, the global accreditor of college and university programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. 

ABET accreditation assures that programs meet standards to produce graduates ready to enter critical technical fields that are leading the way in innovation and emerging technologies, and anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public.

“I would like to thank all the CSIT staff and faculty, and everyone from other departments, who worked tirelessly during the last four years toward this tremendous accomplishment,” said Dr. Leong Lee, chair of APSU’s Department of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT). “I really appreciate the amount of hard work everybody has put in to achieve this accreditation success.”
 
Sought worldwide, ABET’s voluntary peer-review process is highly respected because it adds critical value to academic programs in the technical disciplines, where quality, precision and safety are of the utmost importance.
 
“When we began offering these programs five years ago, our goal was to have them all ABET accredited as soon as possible,” said Dr. Nicholas Coleman, associate professor in CSIT and associate dean of the College of STEM. “This is the culmination of years of work on the part of the faculty and staff in the department along with everyone else at Austin Peay who assisted with the accreditation process.”
 
Developed by technical professionals from ABET’s member societies, ABET criteria focus on what students experience and learn. ABET accreditation reviews look at program curricula, faculty, facilities, and institutional support and are conducted by teams of highly skilled professionals from industry, academia and government, with expertise in the ABET disciplines.
 
“Now all the three Bachelor of Science (B.S.) programs from the APSU Department of CSIT (B.S. in Computer Information Systems, B.S. in Computer Information Technology, B.S. in Computer Science) are accredited by ABET,” Lee said. “The Department of CSIT at APSU is not only one of the largest computer science departments in the state of Tennessee, but also one of the very few computer science departments in Tennessee with three ABET accredited computing programs. ABET accreditation enables us to offer high-quality academic programs to our students and different computing program choices to students from different backgrounds.”
 
ABET is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization with ISO 9001:2015 certification. It currently accredits 4,361 programs at 850 colleges and universities in 41 countries and areas.

 
More information about ABET, its member societies and the accreditation criteria used to evaluate programs can be found at www.abet.org.
 
For more information about the bachelor’s degree programs in APSU’s Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, visit www.apsu.edu/csci.