Section A - Governance
Seoul Accord Documents > Section A - Governance
A.1 Seoul Accord Guiding Principles
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The Accord is based on mutual respect for the autonomy of its signatories.
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There will be transparency to the accreditation systems of the signatories and to the educational systems to which the accreditation systems are oriented.
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The signatories will be autonomous and free from governmental or other external influence on the accreditation processes.
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The Accord should avoid any perception that it is arbitrary and capricious in its practices and policies, including admitting members and applying rules of membership.
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The Accord should work to become recognized as the international authority on quality assurance for education in the computing and IT-related professions.
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The Accord will promote and develop best practices for the improvement of education in computing and IT-related disciplines.
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The Accord should continually review its policies and procedures to ensure that they are relevant and reliable indicators of the future of computing and IT-related technologies.
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The members of the Accord will be accreditation agencies, not countries.
A.2 Seoul Accord Agreement
Recognition of Equivalency of Accredited Academic Programs Leading to a Degree in a Computing or IT-related Discipline
The signatories have exchanged information on, and have examined, their respective processes, policies and procedures for granting accreditation to academic computing and IT-related programs, and have concluded that these are comparable. Through the Seoul Accord, which comprises this Agreement, the Rules and Procedures and the Graduate Attributes, the signatories recognise the equivalence of such programs in satisfying the academic requirements for preparation to enter computing or IT-related practice at the professional level.
- Accreditation of academic computing and IT-related programs is a key foundation for the practice of a computing or IT-related discipline at the professional level in each of the countries or territories covered by the Accord. The signatories therefore agree:
a. that the criteria, policies, and procedures used by the signatories in accrediting academic computing and IT-related
programs are comparable;
b. that the accreditation decisions rendered by one signatory are acceptable to the other signatories, and that those
signatories will so indicate by publishing statements to that effect in an appropriate manner;
c. to identify, and to encourage the implementation of, best practice, as agreed from time to time amongst the signatories,
for academic preparation for computing and IT-related practice at the professional level;
d. to continue mutual monitoring and information exchange by whatever means are considered most appropriate, including:
i. regular communication and sharing of information concerning their accreditation criteria, systems, procedures,
ii. manuals, publications and lists of accredited programs;
iii. invitations to observe accreditation visits;
iv. invitations to observe meetings of any boards and/or commissions responsible for implementing key aspects of the
v. accreditation process, and meetings of the governing bodies of the signatories.
- Each signatory will make every reasonable effort to ensure that any bodies responsible for registering or licensing computing and IT-related professionals to practice in its country or territory accept the equivalence of academic computing and IT-related programs accredited by the signatories to this agreement.
- The admission of new signatories to the Accord will require the approval of the existing signatories according to procedures specified in the Rules and Procedures of the Accord, and will be preceded by a prescribed period of provisional status, during which the accreditation criteria and procedures established by the applicant, and the manner in which those procedures and criteria are implemented, will be subject to comprehensive examination.
- Appropriate Rules and Procedures for the Accord will be established by the signatories to ensure that this Agreement can be implemented in a satisfactory and expeditious manner.
- There shall be general meetings of the representatives of the signatories, as specified in the Rules and Procedures, to review the Rules and Procedures and other documents relative to the Accord, effect such amendments as may be considered necessary to the documents, deal with applications for provisional status and for admission, and consider other matters relative to effective operation of the Accord in achieving its objectives.
- The administration of the Accord will be facilitated by a secretariat established and operated in accordance with the Rules and Procedures made under the provisions of this Agreement.
- Any signatory wishing to withdraw from the Accord must give at least one year's notice to the secretariat. Removal of any signatory may occur only as specified in the Rules of Procedure.
- The Accord will remain in effect for so long as it is acceptable and desirable to the signatories.