Draft Registered Professional Engineers Council Act 2008

PROPOSED REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS COUNCIL ACT 2008

Background Information
1. Introduction
The CRPE Act was passed in the Legislative Assembly in 1965 as a private members Bill, reference Ordinance No 49 of 1965. Its object was to protect society by ensuring that only suitably qualified persons discharge the responsibilities of engineers and engage in the practice engineering. Around that time there were similar initiatives in other countries to regulate engineering practice. In the UK, 14 engineering institutions holding a Royal Charter, came together in 1965 to constitute themselves into a Council of Engineering Institutions, which would set common engineering education standards for Chartered Engineers as opposed to each institution setting its own standard.

2.

Councils Experience.
Council has registered some 1200 professional engineers during the past 42 years, granting recognition and registration to degrees which, in its opinion and experience, satisfied the legal requisites. At the request of the University of Mauritius, CRPE attends its Advisory Council when new Courses in engineering are proposed or the curriculum is reviewed. The University of Technology also, at least once, sought approval for a particular course, but Council has not undertaken any procedural accreditation of any engineering degree programme, nor even received a request for undertaking such an assignment. Registration with Council is a condition for appointment in an engineers post in the Public Sector. The extent of illegal practice within the Private Sector is not known; some engineers graduated (unregistered) may be holding the title of engineer but not necessarily engaged in the practice of engineering as defined in law.

3.
3.1

Why the proposed amendments, and what are they, briefly?

Need to Update the definition of Practice of Engineering

The definition of practice of engineering as given in the 1965 Act reads thus: "practice of engineering" means "the advising on, the reporting on, designing and the approval of designs of public utilities, etc. The statement of these functions is then followed by a fairly exhaustive inventory of public infrastructure and utilities. Though the definition is extremely restrictive, it does emphasise a key ingredient of engineering practice, viz. designing and approval of design. Council is of the view that the functions Reporting and Advising were also intended to refer to engineering design, but the phrase has been improperly structured for this meaning to be explicit. The definition as it is ignores all the other major functions which are also recognised responsibilities of the professional engineer. An improved definition is now been proposed which captured the key elements extracted from within definitions of practice of engineering of several pieces of legislation consulted.

Background Information

Draft Registered Professional Engineers Council Act 2008

3.2

Defining practice of engineering technology

The new CRPE Act includes the registration of Engineering Technologists and Professional Engineering Technologists. CRPE has also provided a definition for engineering technology and the nature of the work involved, i.e. the practice of engineering technology. In this category of technical personnel, are persons who may hold a 3 year degree, diplomas, etc, but who do not qualify for registration as Professional Engineer. 3.3 Recognition of two levels of Professionals: The Professional Engineers and the Engineering Technologists.

Council wishes to align itself to the fact that the various overseas engineering bodies have developed consensus around the accreditation requirements for two distinct levels of professionals: i. Those issued from an approved First Cycle (or Short Cycle) engineering programme of 3 years duration as satisfying the requisites for the category better known as Technologists (or Incorporated Engineer in the UK, Ingenieur Diplom in France, etc); and ii. Those issued from an approved Second Cycle (intergrating the First Cycle or Long Cycle) of 4 or 5 years for those practising at the professional level, viz. the Chartered Engineer of the UK, the Ingenieurs Diploms Reconnus Scientifiques in France). 3.4 Registration of Engineering Technologists.

The contribution of engineering technologists to the industry and to the provision and maintenance of infrastructure, utilities and services has been recognised in most of the countries and by their engineering profession. Registration of technician engineers or incorporated engineers in the UK came up much later with the establishment of the Engineers Registration Board in 1972, when this Board took over the registration of Chartered Engineers. The educational qualification for the Engineering Technologists (or Incorporated Engineer in the UK) at that time was a Higher Technician Diploma or the City and Guilds Full Technological Certificate, or equivalent. Moreover, the requisites for engineering practice at the professional level are getting more and more stringent, resulting in the exclusion of holders of holders of diploma and 3-year degrees. 3.5 Nature of Experience or Training for registration.

Under the existing legislation a person requires two years of experience to be registered as a Registered Professional Engineer, and after such registration he is eligible to call himself a Professional Engineer. On the issue of this title, Mauritius is completely out of tune with international practices where the title of Professional Engineer as in the case of Chartered Engineer is indicative of holding at least 4 or 5 years experience. The requirement of 2 years experience was introduced in the Act in 1967 following advice from the Secretary of State. Council recognises that changing the 2 years requirement for registration will adversely affect graduates in engineering in search of employment, especially in the Public Sector, so no change is being proposed to this requirement. However the designation Professional shall no longer be applicable to those registered after two years of training.

Background Information

Draft Registered Professional Engineers Council Act 2008

3.6

The Issue of a Professional Engineers Licence.

Council is proposing to align our practice with overseas engineering practice and thereby give credibility to Mauritian Engineering Practice and the Mauritian Engineering Professionals. The proposals include a non-mandatory provision for any person holding at least 3 years of post registration experience to apply for the issue of a Professional Engineers Licence, provided they satisfy the experience requisites specified therein and an assessment of their competence through an interview. There is a special provision for engineers with at least 10 years experience to avail themselves of a 6 months time barred privilege to get a Professional Engineers Licence without undergoing an assessment by interview provided they show that they had direct responsibility for a major engineering project for 2 years. 3.7 The Issue of Mutual Recognition Agreements.

In the aftermath of GATTS, the WTO members have been seeking commitments from each other on market access, especially regarding the removal of barriers to the mobility of qualified personnel. Many WTO members have been quick to realise the benefits accruing from Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on qualifications between professional bodies in their countries and their counterparts in other countries. The MRAs can expedite the processing of applications from professionals belonging to a regulated profession of one country who has to move into another country for delivery of a service. The proposal contains provisions for the Minister to approve the signature of an MRA with any overseas organisation responsible for regulating engineering practice in its own country. The MRA would incorporate terms and conditions applicable to the processing of applications from qualified engineers from each signatory country desiring to undertake an engineering service in the other country. Council is of the view that this proposed amendment and its implementation, as well as other provisions of the Act, will give international recognition to our Engineers. 3.8 Establishment of an Advisory Board on matters of Engineering Standard

The proposals contain a provision for an Advisory Board to be established for approving the Standard of Professional Engineering Competence developed by the Council. This is an essential step in the development, promulgation and operation of a national standard in matters of professional engineering competence. Councils proposals are intended to secure the consensus and gain acceptance of stakeholders. Included in the proposals is a provision for the Minister to appoint the members of the Advisory Board. 3.9 The Establishment of a Board of Engineering Accreditation

The proposals also contain a provision for a Board of Engineering Accreditation (BEA) to be set up under the aegis of the Council, for developing Accreditation Procedures for accrediting engineering degree programmes against the Standard of Professional Engineering Competence developed by the Council, and for undertaking, on application from educational establishments running engineering degree courses, the accreditation of the relevant programme of studies.

Background Information

Draft Registered Professional Engineers Council Act 2008

Under the draft provisions any such accreditation will be purely voluntary. Providers of education in engineering will retain their prerogative to seek accreditation or not for their courses, or seek accreditation from other bodies. The proposals also provide, as in the case of the Advisory Board on Standards, for this Board to comprise representatives of the stakeholders in order to safeguard its autonomy. The proposals are, as far as can be ensured, aligned with overseas practices and reflect the general policy adopted by the regulatory bodies of other countries. This is a recognised practice overseas, where in spite of the existing of institutional and statutory mechanisms for accrediting educational establishments and educational programmes, the accreditation of engineering degree programmes for entry into professional engineering practice is left to the engineering regulatory bodies, or in the of statutory regulatory bodies with the professional the engineering institutions. 3.10 Other provisions

Other proposals in the draft document are mostly administrative in nature. We have proposed a mechanism for dealing with persons who, though being registered, have not renewed their registration. An increase in the applicable surcharge is proposed for such persons. There is a proposal for motivating engineers to renew their registration. Council has proposed to increase the quantum of penalty (fine) for persons practising engineering without being registered with the Council.

4.

The Issue of Accreditation of Engineering Degree programmes

The word accreditation made its appearance in the legislation governing the education sector in Mauritius through the Education and Training (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2005 when the Mauritius Qualifications Act and the Tertiary Education Commission Act were amended. The amendments of interest to Council are those done to Section 2 wherein the following terms were defined: accreditation, equivalence, postsecondary education, and recognition. Amendments to Section 4, extended the authority of TEC to determination of equivalence of professional qualifications, while a new Section 12A confers authority to TEC for the accreditation, subject to terms and conditions to be determined by TEC of every programme offered by an educational institution leading to an award by that institution. This Section was replaced by a new Section 12A by Finance Act of 2007 which requires any person to comply with the provisions of new Section 12A, including obtaining accreditation of the programmes of his institution prior to operating the educational establishment. Council has no reason to believe the above provisions are in any way different from what may be obtained in other countries where the educational authorities have similar powers, and further considers that there is no conflict at all between the legal authority held by the TEC under the above legislation and what is proposed by Council. Council is not concerned by the manner in which the Tertiary Education Commission discharges its functions now, nor will TEC be concerned if the proposed CRPE amendments are approved. No post secondary establishment is or will be compelled to apply for accreditation with Council or the proposed Board of Engineering Accreditation. Councils responsibility is to assess and grant recognition to engineering degree programmes that satisfy its standard for registration, that is, entry into engineering practice. It will continue doing so, except that it would operate one additional mechanism: that of the formal accreditation of the degree programme in engineering for the purposes of granting recognition. Councils proposals are, in fact, aligned with those of international practices and concern standards for the engineering profession.

Background Information

Draft Registered Professional Engineers Council Act 2008

The proposals contained in Councils draft document, require the collaboration of the University and the Tertiary Education Commission as well as the Mauritius Research Council and the Mauritius Qualifications Authority on one or other of the proposed Boards. Additional information is available from the CRPE Registrar on the Councils definition of the word accreditation, obtained from different sources, hoping that these definitions can speak for themselves and help clarify what Council has attempted to explain.

5.

What next?
No formal consultations have been held on the full extent of amendments outside the CRPE Council, though indications were given to a select audience (CRPE members, Panel members, IEM Committee, etc) on 19 Dec 2006 at Gold Crest in the presence of the Hon DPM Dr R. Beebeejaun. Council considers that the proposals should be discussed with: i. The Institution of Engineers, Mauritius and other professional bodies; ii. the University of Mauritius and University of Technology Mauritius; iii. the Tertiary Education Commission and the Mauritius Qualifications Authority; iv. the Mauritius Research Council; v. the Mauritius Employers Federation and the Joint Economic Council; and of course vi. Practising Engineers and any association representing Engineering Technicians.

6.

Queries
Queries regarding the Draft CRPE Act 2008 may be sent to the Registrar, by email to kbhujun@mail.gov.mu

Contact Details:

The Registrar, Council of Registered Professional Engineers c/o Ministry of Public Infrastructure, LT & S Civil Engineering Section, Phoenix

 (Fax) (+230) 686-4506 @ (E-mail) kbhujun@mail.gov.mu  (Website) www.crpemauritius.com

Background Information