Accreditation of engineering degree programmes - current requirements and future challenges, the first Engineering Council conference of its kind, was hailed a success by the 80 participants.  Mainly representing professional engineering institutions or academia, they made the most of the opportunity to review how the engineering profession goes about accreditation at present and how the process can adapt to the changing environment in higher education.

Key points which became apparent during the day included the need to focus more on the value, rather than the cost, of accreditation.  Professional engineering institutions were encouraged to find ways of helping universities to protect the quality of courses in the face of severe pressures on budgets from 2010.  In considering the wider value of accreditation, many felt that it should be viewed as a developmental process, with continuing dialogue between universities and the professional engineering institutions encouraged.  It was agreed that this would be far more effective than the current approach, which places all the emphasis on a five-yearly visit.

The Engineering Council's Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Ramsay, commented, "It was encouraging to hear a consistent voice amongst participants in support of quality and outcomes as being key to address the future challenge of UK HE.  We had some very good feedback from participants, and are now looking at establishing a webforum to enable relevant stakeholder groups to keep discussion open on specific issues."

The full conference report and presentations can be seen on:  /education--skills/accreditation/accreditation-conference.aspx