Unrecognized Degrees by BEM, 4 years vs 3 years Engineering

Degree not recognised

MY SON completed the Bachelor of Engineering programme with an established university in the Klang Valley and obtained an honours degree.

He recently applied for a job at a reputable engineering firm and was on the verge of being accepted, when he was informed that his degree was not recognised by the Board of Engineers, Malaysia.

We called up the board and it confirmed that it only recognises the four-year degree programme and not the three-year one.

This important fact was obviously not told to us during the time of my son’s registration at the university, when it should have been openly disseminated to all prospective students.

Why has this established university withheld such information from its students? Something is terribly wrong here.

Most universities that offer UK-recognised engineering programmes are for three years with an addditonal year for industrial training.

There will be many engineering students who will be graduating, but they will be unable to get jobs simply because of the board’s requirement.

I want parents of prospectve engineering students to know of this requirement which I think is totally unfair.

Is there any recourse for graduates like my son? Many parents like me have worked hard to save so as to educate our children, and we feel this is an injustice on the part of the university and the board too.

HG CHEOK

Via e-mail

Kuching Wild Kid says:

I quoted the article from TheStar because I want to share it with all engineer-wannabes. The degree of the writter's son above is unaccredited by BEM (all engineer-wannabes must know what is BEM) because it's a 3-years programme. That is because BEM follows Engineering Council of UK which you need to undergo 4 years of engineering education before you are qualified to register as a professional engineer. 3-years engineering degree may allow you to work as an engineer at private company but you can't become a professional engineer registered with BEM. All engineer-wannabes please do some researches before enrolling into your engineering course so that you can be a qualified professional engineer after you graduated. List of recognised institutions can be found here. Please share this among  your friends who planned to take up engineering to avoid them to be enrolled into wrong engineering courses. Go for 4-years engineering programme! 

P/S: If you think this post is useful, please click on the ads at the sidebar to buy me medical books. =P