Islamabad Pakistan becomes the 19th signatory of prestigious Washington Accord as announced during its conference held in Alaska represented by Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), says a press release issued here.
This status lead to international recognition of Pakistan Engineering Council’s accreditation system of engineering education and hence, facilitate engineering graduates and professionals of Pakistan at international level. The graduates from PEC accredited engineering programs of the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will now be accepted for education and employment purposes in other member countries of Washington Accord.
The proposal for Pakistan’s membership was placed by the PEC delegation comprising Engineer Jawed Salim Qureshi, chairman PEC, Engineer Prof Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar, Vice Chairman PEC (Punjab) and Convener Engineering Accreditation and Qualification Equivalence Committee (EAQEC), and Dr. Nasir Mahmood Khan, Additional Registrar PEC supported by all engineers of the country. Pakistan has been accepted as full signatory member of Washington Accord on 21 June, 2017.
The Washington Accord is an international agreement among the engineering bodies of member countries accrediting academic engineering programmes at university level, leading to the practice of engineering at the professional level. In terms of this agreement, each engineering body accepts the accrediting processes of the others. The Washington Accord recognizes substantial equivalence of engineering education among member countries, hence, engineering graduates are accepted and can practice as engineers in other countries.
Membership of Washington Accord is recognition of the standards and quality of engineering education offered by the member countries. In Pakistan, PEC has been accepted as engineering body of world class category maintaining standards of Engineering education in line with international standards.
At present, the Washington Accord member countries are: Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Tipei, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, United States and United Kingdom while the Provisional Members are: Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico, Philippines.
