Dr. Çetiner’s Blogs (Dr. Beytullah Gültekin Çetiner)

What is Washington Accord?

Washington Accord is an international aggreement signed in 1989 by different international organizations responsible for accrediting engineering degree programmes. Engineering Accreditation Council of Malaysia (EAC) is one of the Organisations holding provisional status which means as having qualification for accreditation or recognition procedures that are potentially suitable for the purposes of the Accord. EAC aims at 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 necessarily recognised by the signatories.
The Washington Accord, signed in 1989, is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs. It recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those bodies and recommends that graduates of programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies be recognized by the other bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering.

Introduction to Accords for Accreditation of Engineering Programmes
There are six international agreements governing mutual recognition of engineering qualifications and professional competence. In each of these agreements countries/economies who wish to participate may apply for membership, and if accepted become members or signatories to the agreement. In broad principle, each country/economy must meet its own costs, and the body making application must verify that it is the appropriate representative body for that country/economy.

Agreements covering tertiary qualifications in engineering
There are three agreements covering mutual recognition in respect of tertiary-level qualifications in engineering:

The Washington Accord signed in 1989 was the first - it recognises substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in professional engineering, normally of four years duration.

The Sydney Accord commenced in 2001 and recognises substantial equivalence in the accreditation of qualifications in engineering technology, normally of three years duration.

The Dublin Accord is an agreement for substantial equivalence in the accreditation of tertiary qualifications in technician engineering, normally of two years duration. It commenced in 2002.

Signatories of Washington Accord
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.

* Australia - Represented by Engineers Australia (1989)
* Canada - Represented by Engineers Canada (1989)
* Chinese Taipei - Represented by Institute of Engineering Education Taiwan (2007)
* Hong Kong China - Represented by The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (1995)
* Ireland - Represented by Engineers Ireland (1989)
* Japan - Represented by Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education (2005)
* Korea - Represented by Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea (2007)
* New Zealand - Represented by Institution of Professional Engineers NZ (1989)
* Singapore - Represented by Institution of Engineers Singapore (2006)
* South Africa - Represented by Engineering Council of South Africa (1999)
* United Kingdom - Represented by Engineering Council UK (1989)
* United States - Represented by Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (1989)

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

* Germany - Represented by German Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics
* India - Represented by National Board of Accreditation of All India Council for Technical Education
* Malaysia - Represented by Board of Engineers - Malaysia Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC)
* Russia - Represented by Russian Association for Engineering Education
* Sri Lanka - Represented by Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka

‘Bogus universities’ in the UK

BBC London has exposed an international education scam targeting foreign students in the United Kingdom. Students who come to the UK to get a British degree might be duped.

The multi-million pound con has gone on virtually unchecked for seven years. It exploits lax UK Government policy and uses the UK’s most prestigious universities as a front to sell unrecognised and worthless degrees.

Every year 40,000 foreign students come to London to study for a British degree. While many attend famous institutions with worldwide reputations, others are tempted into cheaper backstreet colleges by conmen where they end up paying thousands in fees. But the degrees they get are as dodgy as the professors who hand them out.

BBC’s investigation began with student Sounak Halder who was granted a visa to study for a UK degree at an East London college. In 2006 after seeing an advert for a UK recognised masters degree, Sounak from Kolkata took out a £5,000 loan to come to London to study. He made sure that the college was listed on a British Government website.

He says: “I was happy at that point of time. After that I’d gone to the British Council to check for the check, they also said yes, just check the DFES site. If the college’s name is there it means it’s fine … go for that.”

The college Sounak had chosen was linked to the Irish International University (IIU). It would be the one to award him the Masters degree. But concerns had already been raised in London over the IIU and others.

In fact BBC London discovered that the IIU was already listed on a secret Government blacklist of suspect universities back in 2005.

BBC  set up an undercover investigation with their bogus academic, Professor Beeg. Pretending to want to set up his own college in London, he met two men who run Irish International University, Professor Sandhu and Dr Varo.

Within two hours of meeting him, Dr Varo offered BBC’s Professor Beeg a professorship. He said: “You must become attached to a university so we can put you under Irish International University and give you a professorship.”

Varo stated that Irish International was bona fide. He said: “It is not bogus you know, or no existence or anything like that, that’s not true.”

But when BBC London went to the IIU address in Dublin, there was absolutely nothing there. No staff, no faculty, no students, nobody had even heard of a university on the premises.

The Irish International University’s degrees are backed by the Quality Assurance Commission UK (QAC UK) which Professor Sandhu points out is “an independent body that basically maintains the quality whether it’s in Africa or the UK … It’s a private body.”

But when BBC London arrived at the QAC’s office in North London, they found it was a virtual office, just like Dublin.

Students are not the only people being duped. Leading businesswoman Mary Chapman, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, attended Irish International’s degree ceremony at Oxford University’s Divinity School as a guest of honour.

Irish International’s scam depends on its ability to hire out facilities in Oxford and Cambridge. This lends the outfit credibility, not to mention numerous photo opportunities which it uses to publicise itself to students around the world.

BBC tracked down the Honorary Chancellor of the Irish International University, his Excellency Baron Knowth. It turns out he is no aristocrat; he is in fact Jeffrey Wooller, a chartered accountant from London

He has been a prominent member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He owns a £1.2million townhouse in Kensington as well as a flat in Monte Carlo, where he is a tax exile.

The UK government promises that by 2009 all colleges will have to be accredited if they want to bring overseas students to the UK to learn. It is progress, but not enough to have saved the students who have been conned out of thousands of pounds for dodgy degrees.

BBC