FAQs: Academic qualifications

UK courses accredited for Engineering Council registration are listed on our course search database.

Some overseas courses are also listed on our database. If your course is not listed on our database, you might find it in one of the following locations:

• Europe: A large number of European degrees are listed on the European Engineering Education Database
• Outside Europe: Courses accredited in overseas countries that are part of the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) can be found on the IEA website. You should use the links on the Washington Accord, Sydney Accord or Dublin Accord accredited programmes pages of the IEA website

If you are still unable to find your course, please contact us and we will be happy to assist. 

If your qualification is not accredited, you may demonstrate the required knowledge and understanding in other ways.

Please contact a relevant Licensed Professional Engineering Institution (PEI) for further information.

If you search just by university, you can see all the programmes accredited for that university. If your degree does not appear it is probably not accredited. However, occasionally there may be an explanation as to why an accredited programme is not listed.

Please ask your university first if it is an accredited programme. If the university believes that it is accredited, they should contact the relevant Licensed PEI to check the degree’s accredited status.

Please don’t contact the Engineering Council until you have done this as we can only direct you to the Licensed PEI.

No. Degrees are accredited on request from the university.

If you wish to seek professional registration, you may do so by what is known as the ‘individual route’.

This assessment is carried out by a Licensed PEI – please contact the relevant institution for further information.

Until 1 September 1999 the academic requirement for Incorporated Engineer (IEng) registration was an accredited Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND).

From that date, the requirement was raised to Bachelor degree level. This means that HNC/HND qualifications started in September 1999 or later do not fully satisfy the IEng registration requirement, with the exception of a small number of courses whose accreditation extends beyond this date. However, these only satisfy the IEng education requirement where further learning is not required for the intake year. See the rules below to determine whether an HNC/HND started before September 1999 satisfies this requirement.

Changes to national qualification frameworks in 2010 resulted in the HNC being positioned as a lower-level qualification than the HND. Consequently, the HNC is no longer a potential exemplifying qualification for IEng registration. This change only affects individuals beginning HNC qualifications from 1 September 2010. The position of HNDs remains the same.

If you have studied, or are thinking of studying for, an engineering HNC or HND see our guidance note, our spreadsheet of accredited HNCs and HNDs and our Course Search Database for further information.

In 1999 the Engineering Council established a precedent that Bachelors programmes accredited as partially meeting Chartered Engineer (CEng) learning outcomes could be assessed for Incorporated Engineer (IEng) registration in the same way as an applicant holding a degree accredited for IEng.

From 2009 this precedent was replaced by a policy whereby all honours degrees accredited from intake year 1999 were deemed to automatically have ‘dual accreditation’ for IEng and be eligible for recognition under the Sydney Accord.

This policy was reviewed during 2021, when it was decided to revoke the policy of automatic dual accreditation and revert to a precedent that allows for someone applying for IEng with a degree accredited for CEng to be assessed for IEng registration in the same way as a candidate who holds an IEng accredited degree.

This means that an honours degree accredited for CEng (with further learning required will, for intakes of students following implementation of this change:

• Continue to be treated by Licensed Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) to assess candidates for IEng registration as a qualification that demonstrates knowledge and understanding for IEng
• Not be automatically accredited for IEng, and will therefore not be recognised as an engineering technology degree internationally (ie under the Sydney Accord)

In 2021, The Engineering Council decided to allow for someone applying for IEng with a degree accredited for CEng to be assessed for IEng registration in the same way as a candidate who holds an IEng accredited degree.

This means that an honours degree accredited for CEng (with further learning required) will, for intakes of students following implementation of this change:

• Will continue to be treated by Licensed PEIs to assess candidates for IEng registration as a qualification that demonstrates knowledge and understanding for IEng
• Will not be automatically accredited for IEng
• Will not be eligible for recognition as an accredited engineering technology degree under international engineering education accords, unless separately and specifically accredited as meeting IEng learning outcomes

A programme can be accredited as partially meeting the academic requirements for Chartered Engineer (CEng) or Incorporated Engineer (IEng) registration. In such cases, further learning will be required to demonstrate your learning and understanding to the specified higher level. You may achieve this by way of a further formal qualification, sometimes referred to as a top-up qualification, or by a range of other means such as private study, workplace projects or attending courses related to work. However, whatever means is chosen, it must be subject to rigorous and valid independent assessment.

By way of an example, if you hold a Bachelors with Honours degree that is accredited as partially meeting the academic requirements for CEng, you may choose to complete your learning by studying for an accredited Masters degree.

A programme accredited as ‘further learning’ for Chartered Engineers (CEng) or Incorporated Engineers (IEng) is accredited as a ‘top up’ from a programme which is accredited as partially meeting the academic requirements for that grade of registration.

For example, a MSc that is accredited as further learning for CEng can be used to ‘top up’ from a Bachelors degree with honours that is accredited as partially meeting the academic requirements for CEng.

Where individuals were given exemption from one or more years of a programme, their intake year is the year they would have started, if they had joined at the beginning of the programme. Eg a person who was admitted to a programme in 2000 with direct entry to the second year, their start year would be 1999 for the purposes of determining recognition status of the programme.