Accreditation

Under UK-SPEC, to satisfy the academic requirements for becoming a Chartered Engineer (CEng), an MEng degree (480 credits) is the minimum requirement.  Whilst graduates with a BEng Honours degree (360 credits) may satisfy the academic requirements for corporate membership of their professional body, they will be required to complete the equivalent of a further one year of full-time study (120 credits) at master’s level to be eligible to become chartered.  This additional academic component is referred to as ‘further learning’. 

Given the other non academic requirements for corporate membership of industrial experience and responsibility, it can be expected that the IGDS nature of the MSc in Process Automation (180 credits) will be particularly attractive to graduates with an accredited BEng degree. 

Thus, broadly speaking, for delegates with an accredited first degree, together with relevant experience and responsibility:  

BEng + MSc (Process Automation) => CEng

The MSc degree in Process Automation is accredited for further learning to Master’s level under the UK-SPEC guidelines for all delegates admitted between Sept 2009 and Aug 2014 on the following basis:

• IChemE, for graduates with an accredited BEng degree in chemical engineering
• IET and InstMC, for graduates with an accredited BEng degree in any discipline

Resubmission

Note that the MSc degree awarded to any delegate invited to resubmit the dissertation for the Industrial Project is not accredited.

Individual Route

For delegates who do not satisfy the above academic criteria for CEng status there is the individual route. This involves a case by case assessment of individuals’ non accredited qualifications together with any accredited further learning.

For example, the individual route is available to any delegate whose:

• first degree is not an accredited BEng degree who is awarded an MSc in Process Automation.
• first degree is an accredited BEng degree who is awarded a Diploma in Process Automation.
• initial qualification was an HNC or HND, who registered for the Diploma and, having successfully passed four modules at MSc standard, is transferred to and awarded the MSc degree in Process Automation.

A likely requirement is that delegates will have to demonstrate further learning: this may be achieved as a result of work based learning programmes or other academic courses. Another means of achieving this, at the discretion of the professional body, is the submission of a technical report derived from the delegates’ experience and responsibility.