Accreditation plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of engineering education. CIBSE awards academic accreditation to higher education programmes in building services engineering that meet the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC). This standard is outlined by the Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes (AHEP) and ensures that courses align with industry and professional requirements.
The UK-SPEC is a framework that defines the expectations and criteria for professional registration, ensuring that engineers have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to perform competently. It is also a benchmark for assessing the competence of engineers, which helps maintain high standards in the profession. This guarantees that graduates of CIBSE-accredited programmes meet the academic requirement for registration with the Engineering Council, paving the way for professional registration as a Chartered Engineer and full Member of CIBSE, Incorporated Engineer, or Associate Member or Engineering Technician Licentiate.
The accreditation process
The accreditation process involves a thorough evaluation of programme content and delivery by a panel of trained and expert accreditors, who assess relevance, coherence, challenge, assessment, staffing, quality assurance and resources. They then make recommendations to the Academic Accreditation Committee (AAC), which is responsible for accreditation decisions.
Each panel consists of three members, including two academics and an industry expert. The industry expert will be a senior member working in industry who can assess the programme and its fitness for industry.
The AAC also oversees the policies and process for CIBSE Accreditation, and strategically supports the Engineering Council and CIBSE in improving the educational base for registration and membership.
Value of accreditation
Completing one of these courses improves graduate employability by demonstrating that students have developed the appropriate skills and knowledge for an engineering career and professional registration.
Additionally, students enrolled on a CIBSE-accredited academic programme can apply for CIBSE Student membership for free – one of the many benefits of being on an accredited degree.
Currently, CIBSE accredits 87 programmes across 24 educational providers. Each programme is accredited for a maximum of five years before requiring re-accreditation. Approximately 10-12 accreditation visits are conducted annually, including international visits to the United Arab Emirates and China.
The ACC constantly reviews its accreditation requirements, a recent addition being around climate change and sustainability.
This ensures that CIBSE-accredited engineering programmes prepare students to be future climate leaders by providing them with the knowledge, skills and mindset to address the climate emergency.
Energy efficiency, climate resilience and sustainability principles are now essential components of building services engineering education.
Insights from an accreditation moderator
Steve Hunt, of Steven Hunt Associates, details his experience as an accreditation moderator:
‘As an industry, we take it for granted that the qualifications candidates present are valid and of equal currency. I was extremely impressed with the depth of examination and the rigour employed by the accreditation body in ensuring that standards are maintained across the full range of available courses.
‘The industrialist representation within the process balances the needs of industry with the technical requirements of academia, while keeping it relevant and demonstrating to students the link between the two – and giving them a voice to influence progress.
‘It is refreshing to see the quality and strength of students representing the future of our industry emerging
from these courses. This role provides the perfect opportunity to share your experiences for the benefit of the next generation of engineers.’
If you would like to help influence the future of building services engineering and become a moderator, or wish to know more about CIBSE Accreditation, please email partnership@cibse.org
Case study: Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University runs CIBSE-accredited programmes in the UK and Dubai, at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Accreditation plays a vital role in ensuring our programmes remain current and relevant, while providing an opportunity to engage with leading experts in the field.
Our most recent accreditation visits fell during the pandemic lockdown period, so took place primarily online, but we were able to supplement these digital meetings with in-person visits to campus in 2023. CIBSE was extremely helpful and flexible in navigating this added complexity, working through the means of providing digital documentation securely, and maintaining a really useful dialogue throughout the process.
Collating information for the panel, and presenting and discussing this, is a helpful team exercise for the staff, requiring us to revisit mapping against criteria and articulate how courses link at each stage of study.
This time around, we were able to discuss with the panel the impact of the new AHEP criteria, and how that evolved our offering around equality, diversity and inclusivity, security, and design ‘optioneering’ for sustainability.
Our curricula have always been very multidisciplinary: our building services and architectural engineering students study alongside other construction disciplines at each stage, working with real-world scenarios on cross-disciplinary project work.
The importance of this can be tough to articulate to our internal auditors at the university, and CIBSE’s support of our approach gives us additional weight when arguing for points of value and quality in our programmes.
The process is very discursive and reciprocal; it’s an enlightening opportunity for professional dialogue, with a human face.
Students benefit, too. When the accreditation panel visited our campus, the CIBSE officer took the opportunity to meet with our first-year students and introduce CIBSE and student membership benefits directly to them, linking into the coursework for their class on addressing the climate emergency.
We’re delighted that this pays off as the students develop their careers in industry. Heriot-Watt graduates from the Edinburgh and Dubai campuses have recently been the proud recipients of CIBSE/ASHRAE graduate awards, and lead Young Engineers Network groups across the globe.
- By Alex MacLaren, Associate Professor in Architecture at Heriot Watt University
