This is an email I sent at some point to explain to a junior colleague the notion of an education reference framework which was a deliverable of a large research project proposal.

Let X be your favorite government, agency etc. It wants a reference education framework and, typically, has set aside a sizeable budget or certification programme you want apply for.

Something like the ACM/IEEE recommended Curriculum for Computer Science and Engineering. To call yourself Computer Scientist according to the ACM/IEEE your degree program must have (Numbers of hours and subjects recalled from memory):

• 30hrs of Operating Systems,
• 29hrs of Algorithms,
• 42hrs of Computer Graphics,
• …
• 20hrs of KissMyAss and
• 35hrs of BendYouKnee.

For each of those subjects the document spell out what is supposed to be done in the 20hrs of KissMyAss to be call that way and not BendYouKnee. Hours and selection of topics are objectives and never depend on whoever among The Goods & The Greats was in that committee (Homework 1). But let's not get drawn into revolutionary thoughts.

Another exampe is the DHS effort which created knowledge areas (aka superset of courses) and said

• DHS: “hey do you want to that we hire you graduates as security experts no question asked?”
• University: “Yes.”
• DHS: “Well, you show me that your degree programme has” ….
  • 20hrs of InformationAssurance,
  • 15hrs of Cryptography,
  • 32hrs of NetworkForensics,
  • 20hrs of NoQuestionNoLie and
  • 2hrs of BendYourKnee.
  • (KissMyAss recommended elective for the government track).

You have to basically collect all of the above that into a document showing that 20hrs of BendYouKnee (US) are more or less the same as 15hrs of KissMyHand (IE).

We then show that this 15hrs with 6hrs Lab are equal to 25hrs of BaciaManinaTestaChina (IT) and 2liters of GewurzTraminerHalbTrocken (AT).

So we end with an “aligned educational feamework” and X is happy to recommend, make it mandatory, whatever to all its stakeholders.

You shouldn't be worried of ruining nations as they will ignore it wholesale as

1. the 17hrs of SwirlYouHead taugth by the chair Prof.Dr.Eng. J.H. Knowsall of their TheG&TheG Commitee is not included as you didn't know it existed (“Oh My God, how can one graduate without that? I mean, really…”).
2. Companies will ignore it as well but will set a parallel parrot bogus test that costs a lot of money because it shows that the candidate is an entrepreneurial type and will do whatever to get the job.

From your personal perspective, dropping few words on it helps securing a cushy academic job if the head of a degree program sitting in the interview panel has an accreditation meeting coming soon (but beware it will severely backfire if accreditation just passed).

So said, around 99.9% of academics think this is a very serious issue improving the quality of education. Some of them even started setting up accreditation bodies (Homework 2).

Homework for the reader

1. Prove that finding similar topics in “Software and Security Engineering” Syllabi as taught by B. Nuseibeh and by R. Anderson is NP-hard
2. Prove by DNA sequencing that members of accreditation bodies and shopkeepers selling picks and mules to gold diggers in California belong to the same genetic pool.