As in any walk of life, we benefit immeasurably both individually and organisationally from shared experiences, shared cultures and shared outcomes that can be attributed to the community of people gathered from all parts of the world. In recent years, however, Engineers Ireland has placed particular emphasis on marketing itself as the professional organisation of choice for what it calls ‘global engineers’ embarking on work experience in Ireland.
No doubt you will have already read “What does membership ‘growth’ in Engineers Ireland mean?” where we highlighted the poor increase in Corporate Members of Engineers Ireland over the past twelve years. By exploring the trend in Ordinary Members, (being a subset of Corporate Members) over this same period we discovered a worrying outcome that Engineers Ireland is progressively less relevant to Higher Education Authority (HEA) Graduate Engineers. It is no wonder therefore that rather than acknowledge the problems that exist with being relevant to the core membership and addressing these issues, resources are typically diverted to yet another membership growth initiative masking the underlying issues and keep the ‘headline’ membership number up.
On the announcement of another membership expansion initiative, specific questions were put to the Membership and Business Development Director of Engineers Ireland in 2020 regarding the success or failure of previous membership expansion initiatives. Having seen the reply from the Membership and Business Development Director from February 2021, it is remarkable how the espoused promise that “values represent a commitment to ensure that all [its] activities are underpinned by a promise to approach [its] work with specific behaviours” was not endorsed by one of the senior management team: “The Membership team and IT resources needed to analyse the membership data for this timeframe is considerable…… I can point you in the direction of the Engineers Ireland annual reports for those years which are available online, and provide a breakdown…….. in any given year”. The Institution doesn’t take kindly to being answerable to its Members. The dismissive communication was neither on Engineers Ireland letterhead nor signed. Neither was it consistent with remarks made by the President (2019-2020) in the Statement of Strategic Intent (2021-2023):
“We have a vibrant community of members and volunteers ….. whose effort, expertise and influence significantly increase our reach and impact. They are the lifeblood of the institution and as such we recognise that their expertise, support and collaboration is vital to the success of the institution.”
However, the signs of the ‘global engineer’ membership expansion initiative are beginning to take shape.
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2017, page 8, according to the Director General (2015-2022) “20 per cent of our new members in 2017 came from outside of Ireland and the UK – a trend we expect will continue in the future. We also commenced a review of our membership pathways so that all engineers – at all stages of their career, in every engineering discipline whether new or established, and from every demographic – have a professional home with us.”
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2018, page 25, “30% of our new members were global engineers. One of our core objectives is to grow and diversify our membership base from students and recent graduates to engineering professionals and senior managers.”
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2019, page 27 “… 38% of our new members were global engineers…”
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2020, page 31, “approximately 40% of our new members were global engineers, joining our community which includes engineers from 85 countries, working in Ireland.”
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2021, page 34, “31% of our new members were global engineers, i.e. graduating from 54 countries. This growth can be attributed to the increased engagement driven by the Membership Team, targeting different global communities in relation to working in engineering in Ireland.”
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2022, page 19, “In 2022, Engineers Ireland welcomed 457 global engineers from 61 different countries, representing 48% of the total number of new members for the year.”
- In the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2023, page 20, “In 2023, Engineers Ireland welcomed 619 Global Engineers from 72 different countries, representing 52% of the total number of new members for the year.”
We anticipate that the expressions of achievement will be no less restrained when it would appear that membership growth is again propped up, by the reliance of a significant contribution from the ‘global engineers’ pool, when published in the Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2024. This article will demonstrate that there is a level of uncertainty regarding the integrity of the governance processes involved which will need to be addressed transparently.
The Engineers Ireland Annual Report 2021 concludes that this success in “the membership growth achieved in 2021 (particularly among non-standard routes and global engineers) would not have been possible without the time, expertise and guidance provided by our dedicated MQB [Membership and Qualifications Board] volunteers.” This recognition raises an important question. What are the regulations and standards in place to support the ‘dedicated MQB volunteers’ in Engineers Ireland that can realise this membership growth of ‘global engineers’ from so many countries?
Governance
The first port of call is the Engineers Ireland Membership Regulations(2020). Of particular interest to this article, are the regulations regarding the educational standard and requirements supporting the election of a candidate to membership of Engineers Ireland. Clause 1.3.1 and its sub-clauses provides the regulations for a member.
Engineers Ireland maintains an accreditation programme with Third Level Academic Institutions in Ireland that offer engineering based courses, evaluated against its criteria which “creates, maintains and ensures a consistent standard of engineering programmes in Ireland”. An accredited list of courses was published on its website on 15th March 2023. Engineers Ireland is also a member of the International Engineering Alliance and a Signatory on the Washington Accord for the purposes of this article. There are some 295 courses accredited to the Washington Accord standard going back to 1982 in Third Level Academic Institutions in Ireland.
The Washington Accord, originally signed in 1989, “is a multi-lateral agreement between bodies responsible for accreditation or recognition of tertiary-level engineering qualifications within their jurisdictions who have chosen to work collectively to assist the mobility of professional engineers. As with the other accords the signatories are committed to development and recognition of good practice in engineering education.”
Furthermore, “the Washington Accord is specifically focused on academic programmes which deal with the practice of engineering at the professional level…. The Accord outlines the mutual recognition, between the participating bodies, of accredited engineering degree programmes. It also establishes and benchmarks the standard for professional engineering education across those bodies.”
The signatories have full rights of participation in the Accord; qualifications accredited or recognised by other signatories are recognised by each signatory as being substantially equivalent to accredited or recognised qualifications within its own jurisdiction. There are currently twenty-three signatory organisations, representing twenty-three countries, two of those were approved at ‘IEAM 2022’, subject to conditions.[1] There are a further six organisations holding provisional status, representing six other additional countries.
However, “organisations holding provisional status have been identified as having qualification accreditation or recognition procedures that are potentially suitable for the purposes of the Accord; those organisations are further developing those procedures with the goal of achieving signatory status in due course; qualifications accredited or recognised by organisations holding provisional status are not recognised by the signatories”. {emphasis added}
Notwithstanding the clear non-recognition by signatories of ‘provisional status’ yet, Engineers Ireland has provided a world map on its website illustrating countries with which it has international agreements that may will be misleading for ‘global engineers’ since it also includes countries with ‘provisional status’. Engineers Ireland is also a member of the ‘European Network for the Accreditation of Engineering Education’ which is a not-for-profit organisation whose aims are to:
- “Build confidence in systems of accreditation of engineering degree programmes in Europe
- Promote the EUR-ACE® label and its associated framework standards
- Promote and co-ordinate the national accreditation agencies, provide support and facilitate their regular reviews”
There are twenty full members of ENAEE representing nineteen countries. Countries represented by five of these full members overlap with the countries represented by the Washington Accord Signatories.
It would appear, therefore, that there are approximately thirty-six (36) countries, based on the mutual agreement of the accreditation framework for engineering education programmes set out in the Washington Accord and ENAEE from which the Membership and Qualifications Board of Engineers Ireland can assess ‘global engineers’ for Membership of its institution for the pathway to Chartered Engineer.
verification and authentication
As already quoted from Engineers Ireland Annual Reports approximately 40% of new members in 2020, 31% of new members in 2021, 48% of new members in 2022, and 52% of new members in 2023 are ‘global engineers’ that the Membership and Qualification Board at Engineers Ireland would have processed via these two Membership Regulations(2020) sub-clauses:
(ii) An engineering qualification which Engineers Ireland, through an international agreement, recognises as satisfying the educational standard for the grade of Member;
Sub-clause (ii) above will account for those educated in countries where there are international agreements in place such as the Washington Accord and ENAEE. As we have shown, this only accounts for 36 countries approximately. In 2020 Engineers Ireland elected members from 85 countries, in 2021 it elected members from 54 countries, in 2022 it elected members from 61 countries, and in 2023 it elected members from 72 countries. Has therefore, the assessment of those ‘global engineers’ not from countries represented by international agreements, been facilitated through sub-clause (iii)?
(iii) Other engineering or related qualifications or learning experiences deemed by Engineers Ireland as satisfying the educational standard for the grade of Member.
If that is the case, then in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Membership and Qualifications Board of Engineers Ireland would have had to assess the educational standards of a significant number of countries’ academic institutions, for which there would appear to be no recognised transferable standard, for example, with the other signatories of the Washington Accord. In addition Engineers Ireland had to establish a verification and authentication process to assure that for each ‘global engineer’ candidate their results and certificates meet the same integrity in processing that is required in Membership Regulations(2020) sub-clause (i):
(i) A degree in engineering or engineering technology approved by Engineers Ireland as satisfying the educational standard for the grade of Member.
Membership Expansion Initiatives – at what cost?
Will it be ‘business as usual’ at the next Engineers Ireland AGM? We have already articulated the poor uptake of HEA graduate engineers to become members of Engineers Ireland over the last decade from Third Level Academic Institutions in Ireland. Have we now just identified why this worrying trend has not been more apparent to the membership of Engineers Ireland?
While membership expansion initiatives are welcome, if a cost-benefit analysis has not been undertaken on previous less successful initiatives, how can Engineers Ireland justify its limited resources being channelled this way? How does Engineers Ireland assure its members that the integrity of the membership regulations has been strictly complied with in all cases for this membership expansion initiative?
It is however, unlikely that Engineers Ireland will ever disclose how many of the ‘global engineer’ community, elected as members of Engineers Ireland since 2017 did not graduate from Third Level Academic Institutions with which the above international agreements are in place.
[1] “Signatory status approved at IEAM 2022 on the basis of a virtual review, approval subject to conditions set out by the Washington Accord meeting.”
Conscientious Observers 