Engineering Council

You have three options:

• Apply for an EAB visit, which allows you to invite three or more institutions on a joint visit. You have a single point of contact through the EAB secretariat and complete one set of submission documentation. Find out more about EAB visits
• Contact the professional engineering institutions directly to request a joint visit. Normally one of the institutions would take the lead in arranging such a visit.
• Contact the professional engineering institutions to arrange separate visits to look at your programmes.

To contact the EAB secretariat email eab@engc.org.uk.

Contact details for the professional engineering institutions can be found here

Under UK-SPEC, the decision to accredit a programme is made on the basis that it delivers a series of specified learning outcomes. The Engineering Council publication The Accreditation of HE Programmes (AHEP) gives details of the generic output standards for accredited programmes required by UK-SPEC and is periodically reviewed.

Please refer to the online version of AHEP on the Engineering Council website to ensure you are working with the current version (or an approved version during any transition period following review).

The EAB Submission for Accreditation and EAB Accreditation Briefing Manual for Educational Institutions detail the information that is required for an accreditation visit. These can be downloaded from our EAB page

You can still apply for an EAB visit, but you should contact the professional engineering institution(s) whose accreditation runs out before the planned visit to seek advice on the best way forward. It might be possible for the institution(s) to back date accreditation at a future visit, allowing cohorts on the programme at the time it is accredited to benefit from the decision.

Most EAB visits take place between October and May. Visits are normally two days in length and take place mid-week. Visits should be scheduled during term time because the visiting panel will need to meet students on the programmes being reviewed.

Each professional engineering institution on an EAB visit will normally send two or three panel representatives, the EAB secretariat will have one or two staff, and there will also be a number of professional engineering institution staff members and observers in attendance.

A visit report and action plan will be produced after the visit (normally within 6 weeks). You will be asked to check the factual accuracy of the visit report and complete the action plan (usually within 4 weeks). Your response will be sent to the professional engineering institutions for consideration by their committees.

A final decision letter will be issued once all of the institutions have made a decision on accreditation. Due to the varied times at which their committees meet, this could take several months as committees usually meet quarterly. However, wherever possible, the EAB secretariat will provide informal feedback on any decisions made in the interim.

If the programme has previously been accredited (even if the accreditation has lapsed) then you can find the Engineering Council reference by searching the Accredited Courses Database

The Engineering Council reference is the number shown to the right of the Course Title called Course Ref. If the programme has not previously been accredited, then it should be described as 'New' on the form.

You can search the database here

To see all of your university's programmes which are accredited enter your university name against University/College, do not amend any other fields, then click Search.

For a more specific search, enter an accredited programme title in Subject and/or select one or the drop-downs before clicking Search.

If you want to see which universities offer programmes in a particular subject, enter Subject but not University/College.

The database includes historical data, so to see only information related to programmes which are accredited for a recent or future intake year, narrow the search by Entry Year.