The Minister of State at the Dept of Education and Science, Mr Noel Treacy, td, has presented parchments to four universities whose Software Engineering degree programmes have been accredited by The Institution of Engineers of Ireland for the first time.

The degree programmes are:

BSc in Computer Applications - Dublin City University
BSc in Computer Systems - University of Limerick
BSc in Information Technology - National University of Ireland, Galway
BA (Mod) in Computer Science - Trinity College, Dublin

The accreditation followed a comprehensive evaluation of the four degree programmes to ensure that they each met the Institution's criteria in respect of Software Engineering degrees. Assessors from Ireland (North and South) and Germany, drawn from both universities and the software engineering industry, together with observers from the IEI's Washington Accord partners, conducted the accreditations with the Registrar of the Institution, Denis McGrath.

This accreditation is of major significance to all graduates of these degrees. They will now be able to join Ireland's professional body for engineers and use the designatory letters MIEI while those graduates who have four or more years of professional experience as Software Engineers are eligible to apply to the Institution for the Registered Professional Title of Chartered Engineer.

These degrees have international recognition as professional engineering degrees through the Washington Accord and those who are granted the title of Chartered Engineer will be acceptable for professional practice in the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, China and South Africa.

Mr McGrath said: "This is a historic day for the Institution when we welcome the profession of Software Engineering into Ireland's professional body for engineers."

ENDS

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