UCC to fill senior post in bid to smooth over chemical engineering degree dispute

Efforts to regain important status for a chemical engineering degree at University College Cork are continuing after management approval to fill a crucial academic vacancy.

The long-standing absence of a professor or department chair was the main reason for the recent withdrawal of an important accreditation from international body IChemE.

Students in the fourth and final year of process and chemical engineering recently discovered the Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree they are due to receive next year will not have the MEng-level accreditation which IChemE had previously awarded it. While academic standards had been met by the programme, the lack of appointment of a professor or department chair meant new accreditation to MEng level could not be granted.

This could put around 30 students due to graduate in 2016 at a disadvantage with those graduating from other four-year BEng degrees at Cork Institute of Technology and University College Dublin, which have both retained their MEng accreditation in the past year.

UCC confirmed to the Irish Examiner that sanction was given by senior university management on Monday to fill the post.

There had been previous approval to appoint a lecturer in the discipline due to rising demand from undergraduate applicants through the CAO.

The new plan means the process to recruit a department chair can begin, so a professor will be appointed instead of a lecturer. It is believed the process could take four to six months, as UCC will probably advertise the job internationally.

The last IChemE accreditation of the four-year degree at UCC to MEng level was issued in 2010, but was conditional on a professor or department chair being appointed by 2012.

Prof Paul Ross, head of UCC’s school of science, engineering and food science, said it was hoped that the appointment of a new professor can lead to re-accreditation of the course without affecting the students who are due to graduate in 2016.

More than 1,700 people have signed an online petition by UCC chemical and process engineering students in the last week, calling for the necessary appointment to be made.

Engineers Ireland said the four-year Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) degree at UCC is not accredited by it to the level required to attain the chartered engineer title and graduates would require some additional learning. Its accreditation review panel had raised the issue of the shortage of lecturers in UCC during a visit in 2013.

“The academic team in UCC are in constant communication with the registrar of Engineers Ireland on the topic. Like many other universities and institutes of technology the reduction in investment over the last number of years is having a detrimental impact on the ability of academic staff to deliver world class engineering education,” it said.

UCC said last week that its inability to fill the department chair post was due to consistent cuts in government funding to the university, and employment controls that restrict staff numbers.