Engineering Council

An increasing number of countries are signatories to the Dublin, Sydney and Washington Accords. These agreements apply to programmes accredited or approved within a signatory’s national and territorial boundaries.

The international accords enable UK academic qualifications accredited or approved for the Engineering Council for Engineering Technician, Incorporated Engineer and Chartered Engineer to be accepted as ‘substantially equivalent’ to the Graduate Attributes (learning outcomes) defined for the corresponding Accord. The Accords are used to enable recognition of signatories’ accredited engineering education programmes for national registration purposes.

Migration authorities in some signatory countries also use the Accords as a guide to academic equivalence when issuing visas.

Before applying for immigration or membership of overseas engineering organisations, applicants holding a UK qualification can check whether it is accredited by using our Recognised Course Search. Some Sydney and Washington Accord signatories may also be willing to recognise older programmes that can be found using the Older Recognised Courses Search.

Holders of Higher National level qualifications (HNC, HND, HC, HD) can additionally check whether their qualification is on the list of Accredited Higher National Certificates and Diplomas that can be found at the bottom of the accredited course search page. If your qualification is not in the list or you started your studies before 1999 please consult the Higher National awards document linked at the bottom of this page.

The European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE) is expanding within and beyond the European Higher Education Area.

All EUR-ACE® Authorised Agencies are signatories to the EUR-ACE® Accord by which they have agreed to make every reasonable effort to ensure that the bodies responsible for recognising engineering qualifications and/or for registering or licensing professional engineers to practice in its country or jurisdiction, accept the comparability of EUR-ACE® labelled programmes accredited by authorized agencies.

There is no geographical criterion for award of the EUR-ACE® labels.

The Engineering Council recognises Dublin Accord, Sydney Accord and Washington Accord* qualifications as providing knowledge and understanding that underpins the competence requirements for registration as Engineering Technician, Incorporated Engineer and Chartered Engineer respectively.

*Students starting Washington Accord programmes from July 2015 onwards will be required to demonstrate learning to European Masters level when applying for Chartered Engineer registration.

The Engineering Council recognises degrees with the EUR-ACE® Bachelor label as fully meeting the education requirements for Incorporated Engineer registration. A EUR-ACE® labelled integrated Masters degree or a combination of a EUR-ACE® labelled Bachelors and Masters degree are recognised as meeting the education requirements for Chartered Engineer registration.

Applications for Engineering Council registration under the EUR-ACE®, Dublin, Sydney or Washington Accords should be made through one of the professional engineering institutions. Your institution will be able to supply all necessary details.