UCC Chemical Engineering Students Have MEng Accreditation Revoked

On Monday the 5th of October, the Process and Chemical Engineering student body were collectively informed of the degredation of their degree from an MEng to a BEng level in the eyes of the IChemE (the global governing body for chemical engineers).The UCC students had their MEng accreditation revoked as the university had not replaced a lecturer that had left the university in 2008. IChemE felt the discipline was weakened and decided to downgrade the degree status. IChemE commented that "there is still no professional appointment in the Department and there have been no other staffing increases since the last accreditation visit". The current students will receive a degree accredited to BEng, while the graduates of previous years received a degree accredited to MEng with IChemE. The students affected by this issue have created a petition on change.org, where many have stated their reasons for signing. The website contains comments stating "the result is extremely disappointing, and will have a negative impact on those students that qualify with this degree, in Ireland, the UK and the rest of the world".The statement on the website continues that "Currently, the department is without a Professor or Department Chair. This has been the case for many years and is an issue that has been raised more than once. The implications due to the lack of staff are only going to get worse, due to the increasing popularity in this degree".One signatory made the following comment: "If there was any concern given to students by the college, or indeed the president himself, there would have been communication regarding the matter so we, as a student body, could have helped in the process. Many of us chose this course over other colleges because of the accreditation offered".The students affected are demanding the appointment of a Department Chair or Professor, with the overall goal of regaining MEng accreditation from IChemE. "Many of the UK companies will not even grant interviews to Irish students that are not holders of a Masters Degree or the appropriate accreditation equivalent. Despite our course achieving the same academic level as UK master degrees, we will now no longer be recognised as achieving the same standard".The frustrated students continue to state on the website that "this issue has been raised before and was preventable. The university had years to rectify the situation". The website concludes by calling the students to rise up and sign the petition and states "the student body feels failed by the university, and those people with the power to prevent this occurring".