Every ABET-accredited program is reviewed against a specific edition of the criteria, and those editions change from one accreditation cycle to the next. This month the process produced two results for computing: new program criteria for artificial intelligence and machine learning, and revised criteria for information systems, both given final approval on November 6, 2026, and both first applying to reviews from fall 2027. Engineering and engineering technology programs had their own slate of proposals in the same round. For anyone responsible for a self-study, knowing how a proposal moves from a comment form to a visit is the difference between planning early and finding out at the visit.

Credential Review is an independent publication. It reports on ABET's criteria and does not speak for ABET or its member societies.

Step one: release for comment

Changes are drafted for each of ABET's four commissions and released by that commission's area delegation, the ABET body that decides criteria for its disciplines. In the current round, each delegation approved its proposals for release on October 24, 2025. ABET's engineering criteria document describes the next phase as a 180-day review and public comment period, which for that round closed on June 15, 2026. Proposals are published in section IV of each commission's criteria document for the current cycle and summarized on ABET's proposed changes page, each with its own public online comment form.

Step two: the decision

After comments close, the area delegation decides the final wording, drawing on the comments it received and on advice from the commission that conducts the reviews. Under the timeline in the engineering criteria document, changes adopted at the delegation's fall 2026 meeting take effect after that meeting and first apply in the 2027-28 review cycle.

The computing results show the timing in practice. CSAB, the member society that leads computing accreditation, reported on November 8, 2026, that the Computing Area Delegation had approved both computing proposals at its November 6 meeting, effective for fall 2027.

Step three: the first cycle it applies to

An adopted change applies from the cycle named in the decision, and the adopted text appears in that cycle's criteria document. ABET posts the current cycle's criteria and its Accreditation Policy and Procedure Manual on its website; earlier cycles' documents are available on request from its accreditation office.

What was in the 2025-26 round

  • Computing: new program criteria for artificial intelligence, machine learning and similarly named programs, and revised information systems program criteria (both approved November 6, 2026).
  • Engineering: a change to General Criterion 5 that would let programs count specific college-level mathematics and basic science courses required before entry toward the 30 semester credit hour requirement, with documentation; and revised program criteria for chemical, biochemical and biomolecular engineering and for environmental engineering.
  • Engineering technology: revised program criteria for electromechanical engineering technology and for engineering graphics, design and drafting engineering technology (mechanical).
  • Applied and natural science, and the policy manual: no proposed changes for 2026-27.

The 2026-27 engineering and engineering technology criteria documents carry those proposals as proposals. Whether each was adopted, and in what wording, is settled by the delegation's decision and shows up in the criteria for the cycle it takes effect.

For a program planning a review

Find the cycle of your next visit, then read that cycle's criteria document, including its section IV, since a proposal printed there today can be the rule two cycles out. When a new round of proposals is released, the comment period is the stage at which anyone outside the delegation can weigh in on the wording.

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