School of Planning, Design and Construction

What is the ACCE Accreditation? This is a typical question in the minds of most CM alumni and supporters that aren’t regularly in direct contact with the program. The ACCE stands for the American Council of Construction Education. The accreditation assures the program meets certain quality standards for its faculty, curriculum, student services and fiscal stability. This is extremely important in attracting funding, graduate students, faculty, and most importantly, a high level of employer confidence that hire our students.

The ACCE’s main mission and purpose is to be a leading global advocate of quality construction education; and to promote, support and accredit quality construction education programs. They accredits construction education programs in colleges and universities that request its evaluation and meet its standards and criteria.

The ACCE is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as the accrediting agency for Baccalaureate and Associate Degree programs in construction, construction science, and construction management and construction technology located throughout North America.

The CM Program has been accredited since 1998, and was successfully re-accredited for the second time in the fall of 2010. The re-accreditation process is required every six years and typically requires six months of self evaluation/preparation from the faculty and a three-plus day visit from the on-site accreditation committee from ACCE.

Our members from the CM Alumni and Industry Advisory Board have been attending ACCE national meetings. Our Alumni Board was the first program to do that. Since this started several years back, ACCE has encouraged all programs to send their boards and now holds special sessions for Industry Advisory boards. Jeff Adcock and Grant Mendeljian attended the national meeting in Phoenix in February, along with Professor Tim Mrozowski on behalf of MSU.

The ACCE is always looking for involvement of industry members, which is a great way to impact construction education. Involvement by our MSU board gives the board a working knowledge of how accreditation works, gives our board a chance to influence standards, and helps the board as they review and suggest industry-relevant changes to our curriculum or prepares for involvement in the ACCE site visits.

For more information, visit ACCE.