Need to Understand Foreign Education in Evaluating for P.E. Licensure

Abstract

The experiences described in this paper are of six overseas-trained engineers whose education (primarily British) and experience followed different routes. Their applications for professional registration were turned down because they could not submit transcripts of their education. This paper discusses the origin of the British approach to secondary and higher education in the hope that evaluators of foreign education might gain insight into the quality of education of many foreign-trained engineers practicing in the United States. The external examiner system of London University was exported to all British colonies, and this has strongly influenced the systems of education in these countries even after independence. The strong control of the state over the content and quality of the curriculum also extends to the process of professional registration. Thus, because of the basic similarity in academic standards in all the countries of the British Commonwealth, an engineer who has had his or her education and professional training in one part of the Commonwealth can usually be licensed to practice in Britain even if he or she has never lived there.