Final answer:
Accreditation is the process used in higher education for external quality review of institutions and programs to ensure quality assurance and improvement, with ABET being the predominant body for engineering programs.
Step-by-step explanation:
The process of external quality review used by higher education to scrutinize colleges, universities, and educational programs for quality assurance and quality improvement is known as accreditation. Accreditation serves as a stamp of approval indicating that an educational program, such as an engineering program, has been evaluated and meets specific standards for a quality process, adequate resources, and an appropriate curriculum. For engineering programs in particular, the largest accreditation organization is ABET, which accredited over 2,700 engineering, technology, applied science, and computing programs in 2007.