Accreditation Our degrees are accredited by the BCS (BCS - Chartered Institute for IT) and the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology). This page will help you to understand what accreditation is and how "accreditation" benefits you.

What is "Accreditation"

The BCS and IET are licensed by the Engineering Council to award Chartered Engineer status (CEng) and more recently by the Science Council to award Chartered Scientist status (CSci). To do this they undertake a programme of visits to Universities to review their courses and to see if they provide an appropriate foundation for new entrants to the IT profession.

If satisfied that the content and standards set by the courses are high enough they have the authority to award degrees "accredited " status. This usually lasts for about five years. If you are studying a degree that is "accredited" it means that it contributes either fully or partially to the academic requirements required for you to register for "Chartered" status. In other words you will be exempted from some or all the professional exams required to achieve this title.

Unfortunately you wont get "Chartered" status straight away as usually you will need to become a member of the BCS or IET and do at least two years relevant work experience before you can be considered. You may also need to provide evidence that you have sufficient competences to justify this status and could have to sit a peer review panel before it is granted.

See http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/CEng-and-IEng-Standard-document.pdf and http://www.theiet.org/careers/profreg/ceng/ for details.

To become a full member of these institutions you have to meet their professional requirements and pay an annual fee but once enrolled you are entitled to use the initials MBCS or MIET behind your name. It is possible to get student and associate membership of these institutions.

See http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5653 and http://www.theiet.org/Membership/ .

The BCS is also able to consider accreditation for programmes of study for the Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status.

What level of accreditation has each degree been awarded?

The table below shows you what level of accreditation each degree has achieved.

*CITP Further Learning Element - means you have a first degree in Computing or similar area and your Masters degree is accredited as satisfying the further learning requirements for CITP. If your first degree was accredited then it is very likely that you will be exempt from having to take the professional exams to achieve Chartered Engineer (CEng) or Chartered Scientist (CSci) status.

Regrettably both institutions will not award accreditation to a Masters degree whose entrants do not have a first degree in a Computing area. Therefore in the case of MSc Computing Science students you are still advised to apply to these institutions for membership and professional status but they will look at each application on an individual basis.