Developing an index for quality assessment of engineering education considering uncertainties

Students are a major human resource potential for economic, social and industrial development. However, the role of universities as the main medium for growth and faculty members who direct and motivate students greatly enhance their impact on society and development. In this study, the quality of students’ education and methods to improve that education have been investigated. For this purpose, the factors/criteria in which personal, professional and technical capabilities are formed, are identified and ranked. Multicriteria decision making (MCDM) is used for this evaluation. An index called the engineering education quality index (EEQI) was proposed and four universities were selected for testing purposes. These universities consisted of two major universities in Tehran and in another city and two engineering colleges. An uncertainty analysis was performed on major factors affecting the EEQI using the Markov chain method. In this way, the range of applicability of factors is captured. The results show that working environment, education infrastructure, students-professors interactions, personal life and motivation are among the important factors that should be improved in order to increase the quality of engineering education.