On Monday the 5th of October, the exasperated Process and Chemical Engineering student body were collectively informed of the degradation of our degree from an MEng to a BEng level – in the eyes of the IChemE (the global governing body for chemical engineers).

This result is extremely disappointing, and will have a negative impact on those students that qualify with this degree, both in Ireland, the UK and the rest of the world.

The IChemE stated that “There is still no professorial appointment in the Department and there have been no other staffing increases since the last accreditation visit”. Currently, the department is without a Professor or Department Chair. This has been the case for many years - almost a decade - and is an issue that has been raised by the IChemE and Engineers Ireland more than once. The department is currently operating with five lecturers, and one senior technician acting as a lecturer. These numbers are unfortunate, and evidently unacceptable, given that Process and Chemical Engineering is one of the more popular engineering disciplines across all undergraduate years, with an exceptionally high employment rate. The implications due to the lack of staff are only going to get worse, due to the increasing popularity in this degree.

It is shameful that the graduates of 2016 will only achieve a degree accredited to BEng, while the graduates of 2015 and previous years achieved a degree accredited to MEng with IChemE. This is distressing when one takes into account that the 2015 and 2016 courses are identical. Despite older courses having less chemistry content, they too achieved the MEng accreditation. The IChemE made it very clear that while this may be the case, it is the lack of a professor or Department Chair that is the reason for not being awarded the same accreditation level, but that they are satisfied with the academic content. This in their eyes signals a disinterest and a lack of direction on UCC's part in the programme. Our Engineers Ireland accreditation is currently held in abeyance for the same issue of staffing levels.

The appointment of a Chair Professor in Process & Chemical Engineering is crucial to two accreditations. Furthermore the IChemE BEng-level accreditation is conditional upon a Professorial appointment and increase in staffing levels within two years, if this condition is not met, the degree and its graduates will no longer be recognised or accredited.

This result will impact graduates negatively in that it will now take longer to achieve a level of chartership. 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.

This issue having been raised before was preventable. The university had years to rectify the situation.

CIT and UCD are the only colleges/universities in Ireland that are now accredited to MEng level. This puts a UCC graduate at a disadvantage in comparison to graduates from these institutions. 

We want this to be rectified, we want our accreditation back. 

We also feel that this is an issue that should not have been left to students to address and remedy, and we want the President and Upper Management of UCC to reclaim ownership and correct. The student body feels failed by the university, and those people with the power to prevent this occurring.