UW Petroleum Engineering Degree Gets Accreditation

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — The University of Wyoming’s Bachelor of Science degree in petroleum engineering has been nationally accredited.

David Bagley, head of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, tells Associated Press that UW dropped the program in 1996 because of low enrollment, but it was reinstated in 2005 and currently has 220 undergraduate students and 31 graduate students. The program was accredited by ABET, the national organization that oversees engineering program quality.

Bagley says the accreditation started with a 500-page report in the summer of 2009. It also included a visit by evaluators in the fall of 2009, and then finished with three follow-up reports in 2010, 2011 and 2012 to fully demonstrate that the program met the organization’s standards.