2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) offers three levels of individual credentialing, two of which require participants to pass a standardized test. INCOSE's Academic Equivalency (AcEq) Program allows university coursework to replace the standardized test. The standard test is offered only in English and is a timed, multiple-choice test. AcEq assessments may be offered in any language, any assessment format, and need not be timed. INCOSE sets the requirements for a university to apply for its courses to be recognized with AcEq. Once AcEq is recognized, students who do well in those courses are credited with having met the knowledge requirement. The students must still apply for certification through the standard path.
The process of applying for AcEq involves a university documenting how their course (or courses) assess students against INCOSE’s testing objectives. Describing how they assess knowledge is challenging for faculty members who are more accustomed to documenting teaching and content delivery. INCOSE does not require that universities teach the content within the recognized course(s). This allows for thesis or final project courses, often taught to a wide range of undergraduate students, to qualify for AcEq.
Academic Equivalency was designed to offer an alternate path for assessment in languages other than English, in countries outside the United States and Western Europe. Despite that intent, fourteen of the fifteen academic equivalencies are in the United States. The champions of these programs typically pursue AcEq as a way to provide structure to their courses. Though only a small portion of AcEq-qualifying students pursue and retain their INCOSE certification after graduation, INCOSE and systems engineering faculty members find value in having standardized content presented to future engineers. Success is not measured only in certifications but also in exposure to knowledge.