Further JBM accreditation success for XJTLU civil engineering programmes

The Department of Civil Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University has received further accreditation for its programmes from the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM).

The new accreditations follow last year’s success and mean that all undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes, including a newly-launched masters programme, within the department are accredited until 2018.

“These accreditations further strengthens XJTLU’s position as the first Sino-foreign cooperative university in China offering JBM-accredited programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels,” said Dr Chee Seong Chin, head of the Department of Civil Engineering.

Undergraduate accreditations

Upon graduation, all XJTLU undergraduate students, including those studying civil engineering programmes, receive two degree certificates, one awarded by the University of Liverpool and one awarded by XJTLU.

Last year, the JBM granted accreditation to the Department of Civil Engineering’s University of Liverpool-awarded programmes, BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering and BEng (Hons) Architectural Engineering.

These covered the 2010-2018 and 2015 intakes respectively, under the provisions of the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC).

The BEng (Hons) Architectural Engineering programmeg has now received accreditation to fully cover intakes of 2014 to 2018.

In addition, the equivalent civil engineering and architectural engineering undergraduate degree programmes awarded by XJTLU have also been accredited with the same intake period.

By graduation, students on these two programmes will have partly or fully completed the academic requirements for becoming chartered and incorporated engineers, meaning they will have fewer further qualifications to gain before achieving these important professional milestones.

Dr Chin said: “Under the provisions of UK-SPEC, no matter which degree, the University of Liverpool or the XJTLU award, students can be confident that our undergraduate programmes are an excellent foundation from which to progress to becoming chartered and incorporated engineers.

“For students wishing to become engineers, completing a JBM-accredited course provides a fast-track route to professional status and ensures the quality of the education they receive.”

Postgraduate accreditations

The MSc Sustainable Construction programme has been accredited as a ‘technical’ programme and its accreditation has been successfully extended to cover 2016 to 2018 student intakes – meaning current and future students’ degrees will be accredited. The accreditation of this programme only covered 2014 to 2015 student intakes previously.

Another programme, the newly-launched MSc Civil Engineering programme, which began this academic year, has also received accreditation as a ‘technical’ programme, covering the 2016 to 2018 intakes.

A technically focused MSc programme is one in which the project and at least 50 percent of the modules cover technical subjects.

Global recognition

The accreditation of all civil engineering programmes has now been included in the JBM and UK’s Engineering Council databases, while under the provisions of the Washington Accord, degree programmes that are accredited by the JBM are recognised by several countries and areas around the world including Australia, Canada, China, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong.

Dr Chin said: “The Department of Civil Engineering is committed to maintaining the highest possible quality for all our academic programmes to ensure JBM accreditations are maintained.

“We are also investigating the potential for obtaining the European Accreditation of Engineering Programme (EUR-ACE) label for the programmes within the department, which would extend this recognition across several countries in Europe.”

The JBM is a formation of the four major UK professional accreditation bodies in the field of civil engineering and is comprised of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) and the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE).

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