AEER & Washington Accord

Association for Engineering Education of Russia has become a full member of the Washington Accord in 2012. According to the Agreement there can only be one accreditation agency representing one country within the WA.

The Washington Accord, signed in 1989, is an international agreement among bodies responsible for accrediting engineering degree programs that recognizes the substantial equivalency of programs accredited by those bodies."

Key thesis of the Washington Accord:

"Accreditation of engineering academic programmes is a key foundation for the practice of engineering at the professional level in each of the countries or territories covered by the Accord."

• The quality level of each signatory’s national accreditation agency is equally high;
• The criteria, policies and procedures used by the signatories in accrediting engineering academic programs are comparable;
• The programs accredited by each national accreditation agency on the territory of its country/region are considered equivalent.

It is stated within the Washington Accord that graduates of programs accredited by any of the signatory bodies should be recognized by the other bodies as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering.

At the moment Washington Accord unites leading accrediting agencies of Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, New Zealand, USA, United Kingdom, Chinese Taipei, China, Hong Kong China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey. Another 7 countries are holding the provisional status, their right to be a full signatory is under consideration.

Based on the mutual decision from IEA 2018 and IEA 2019 of all WA Signatories “the Association for Engineering Education of Russia (AEER) be accepted by the other signatories, for a period of six years, as leading to outcomes substantially equivalent to those recognized by the Accord”. The level of WA recognized programmes corresponds to bachelor and specialist degree engineering programmes accredited by AEER.

AEER as a WA signatory recognizes the substantial equivalence of educational programmes accredited by other WA signatories in satisfying the academic requirements for the practice of engineering at the professional level. Graduates from accredited programmes recognized by WA from other jurisdictions can apply for registration as professional engineers on the same ground as graduates from Russian accredited programmes recognized by WA.