Statement on closure of the Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB)

The EAB was an independent body, made up of Licensed Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs) that accredit degrees.

EAB served two purposes:

• To arrange degree accreditation visits involving three or more Licensed PEIs
• To provide a practice sharing forum for Licensed 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 Licensed 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 Licensed 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 Licensed 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 Licensed PEIs and HEIs depending on use of the service.

Consultation of HEIs and Licensed 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.