p053-horner.pdf (443.99 kB)
Issues associated with professional accreditation of UK master's programmes
conference contribution
posted on 2012-03-05, 12:53 authored by Jane HornerTraditionally in the UK, the Professional Engineering Institutions (PEIs)
have accredited undergraduate programmes as meeting the educational
requirements for registration as a professional engineer. Students follow either a
BEng programme, which is three years full time study or an MEng programme, which
is four years full time study. MEng programmes have a higher entry requirement than
BEng programmes and are expected to produce graduates with both a broader and a
deeper knowledge base than a BEng graduate in the same discipline. In 2004, the
UK Engineering Council published UKSPEC,
which expressed the competences
required by professional engineers in terms of outcome statements and set the MEng
outcomes as the minimum educational requirement for professional registration. With
the introduction of UKSPEC,
PEIs have started to accredit MSc programmes as
meeting the further learning requirements for a BEng graduate wishing to become a
chartered engineer. This has raised a number of issues in both PEIs and UK
engineering departments regarding the assessment of the learning outcomes of
MScs against the requirements of UKSPEC.
These issues include how to determine
the level of the learning outcomes and the specific nature of many UK masters
programmes. The paper will address both the issues raised by PEIs and the
problems encountered by departments. Although this paper is focused on issues
related to UK taught postgraduate programmes, the observations on good practice
are applicable to the quality assurance procedures of other taught postgraduate
programmes.
History
School
- University Academic and Administrative Support
Research Unit
- Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre
Citation
HORNER, J.L., 2008. Issues associated with professional accreditation of UK master's programmes. Engineering Education 2008: International Conference on Innovation, Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education. EE2008 conference proceedings. Loughborough: Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre, Loughborough University.Publisher
© Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre, Loughborough University and the UK Centre for Materials EducationVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publication date
2008Notes
This paper was presented at Engineering Education 2008: International Conference on Innovation, Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education, held on 14 -16 July 2008, at Loughborough University, England.ISBN
9781904804734ISSN
9048-0473Publisher version
Language
- en
Administrator link
Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedLicence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC