Engineering Council

Statement on closure of EAB

The Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB) was an independent body, made up of professional engineering institutions (PEIs) that accredit degrees.

EAB served two purposes:

• To arrange degree accreditation visits involving three or more PEIs
• To provide a practice sharing forum for PEIs and the Engineering Council to discuss matters related to degree accreditation

The Engineering Council provided secretariat to EAB through an informal arrangement with no dedicated funding for this activity. 

An extensive review of EAB operations, which included consultations with PEIs and higher education institutions (HEIs), and discussion of proposals for alternative joint visit arrangements, responded to:

• Ongoing challenges with resourcing of EAB visits, which had become increasingly complex
• The desire by EAB members to provide a more professional service, as the EAB visit process couldn’t accommodate an equivalent level of support to university departments that some PEIs provide through non-EAB visits
• The recommendation from the Engineering Council’s Accreditation Review to reframe the practice sharing element of EAB as a formal committee of the Engineering Council

This review resulted in:

• The closure of the EAB visit service
• Replacement of the practice sharing element of EAB with an Engineering Council Programme Recognition Forum, which enables PEIs to share practice related to recognition of programmes against the Approval and Accreditation of Qualifications and Apprenticeships (AAQA) standard, as well as accreditation of degrees against the Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes (AHEP) Standard
• Proposals for a replacement joint visit secretariat

In July 2024 three organisations presented outline proposals for a joint visit secretariat to EAB. EAB members preferred the proposal from the IET and asked the IET to proceed towards a more detailed proposal. At this point the proposal from the Engineering Council was rejected. The IET estimated that the annual running cost of a Joint Accreditation Service would cost approximately £68K, with an initial set up cost of approximately £96K and this cost would be split between PEIs and HEIs depending on use of the service.

Consultation of HEIs and PEIs on the proposed IET led Joint Accreditation Service confirmed that there was not sufficient demand from either HEIs or PEIs to make the service a viable option.

Q&A following the closure of the EAB visit service

Why are EAB visits no longer available?

The model of EAB visits with the Engineering Council providing the secretariat service without dedicated funding or contractual arrangements became unsustainable.

Alternative secretariat arrangements were considered, which would have required HEIs and PEIs to collectively cover the costs. Consultation confirmed that there was not sufficient demand to make proposals for an alternative Joint Accreditation Service viable. 

Why is the alternative Joint Accreditation Service proposed by the IET not available?

The IET consulted HEIs and PEIs and concluded that there was insufficient demand for a Joint Accreditation Service.

22 PEIs and 25 HEIs were consulted on the Joint Accreditation Service proposal. 18% of PEIs were supportive, 23% declined, the remaining 59% did not respond.  The majority of the reasons for declining were due to financial constraints.  For HEIs, 16% were in support and 12% did not see the need for the service due to their changing needs. The remaining (72%) did not respond.

I want to arrange an accreditation visit to my university/department involving more than one PEI. Who should I contact?

Please in the first instance contact the PEI that you consider to be your lead accreditation body. If you are unsure which PEI this is, we suggest you contact the PEI that accredits the largest number of your programmes through joint visits. You are advised to do this as early as possible, to allow time to discuss your needs and make visit arrangements.

If the PEI is unable to arrange a joint accreditation visit, or is not able to arrange one to cover all the programmes and PEIs you would like to be involved, you may need to contact other PEIs to arrange separate visits.