Special Provision Concerning Qualification of Professional Engineer, etc.
Special Provision Concerning Exemption of First Step Examination of Professional Engineer to the Washington Accord Graduates
(2022.3.14)
Each Washington Accord signatory is expected to make every reasonable effort to ensure that the bodies responsible for registering or licensing professional engineers to practice in its country or territory accept the substantial equivalence of engineering academic programmes accredited by the signatories to this agreement.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has approved in consultation with IPEJ and JABEE that the expansion of exemption of First Step Examination of Professional Engineer to be applied to the Washington Accord graduates of who have completed the accredited programs by its signatories within their respective countries or territories. This procedure will start from the Japanese academic year 2022.
Note: Refer from the overview of the proceedings of “The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Subdivision on Professional Engineers”
- Special Provision Concerning Qualification of Professional Engineer, etc.
The Professional Engineer Act Article 31-2-2*, “Special Provision Concerning Qualification of Professional Engineer”, shall be expanded to apply to the graduates of the Washington Accord Signatories produced by respective signatories within their own jurisdictions and/or the territories.
What's JABEE
JABEE is a non-governmental organization which evaluates and accredits educational programs which foster professionals from the standpoints of “knowledge and abilities expected for professionals” and “benchmark of social requirements”. JABEE accredits education provided by a department or a course within the department of engineering, agriculture or science.
JABEE Accreditation Criteria applies the principle of international framework of program accreditation such as Washington Accord. Therefore, the education of accredited programs are internationally recognized as substantially equivalent.
Following are the characteristics of JABEE accreditation.
Message from JABEE to foreign students
The meaning of completion of JABEE accredited program
A student having completed JABEE accredited program is standing at the starting point to further path to become a Professional Engineer. He/she is recognized as having received engineering education recognized among the world. In most of the signatory countries and regions of the Washington Accord, only graduates, who have completed engineering education accredited by a signatory of the Washington Accord, are eligible to be Professional Engineers.
The different situations of the eligibility
Privileges granted to graduates of programs accredited by their country accreditation bodies or by the Washington Accord signatory organizations vary from signatory to signatory. Basically, the path to become a Professional Engineer in a country is exclusively opened to person who have completed the accredited program.
In Hong Kong, an applicant for Professional Engineer needs to be a graduate of accredited program and it is set as one of the prerequisite of registration for Professional Engineer. The Hong Kong Institute of Engineers treats graduates of JABEE accredited programs as equivalent to graduates of their own graduates.
In Australia, less workload and cost efficient process are applied for graduates of JABEE accredited programs for the assessment process of application of working visa as foreign professional engineers.
In several states of the USA, graduates of accredited programs of the Washington Accord signatory organizations, called “Washington Accord graduates” are treated as equivalent to graduates of accredited programs of ABET, engineering education accreditation body, at the time of taking FE Examination, known as “Fundamentals of Engineering” prior to taking PE, also known as “Principle and Practice of Engineering” Examination so that all the hassle required for the application procedure is largely simplified.
The different situation in Japan
In the Washington Accord signatory countries, most of engineering education programs are accredited by accreditation body within the country. However, it is not the case in Japan. Not all the engineering programs are yet accredited by JABEE. There are some unfortunate cases where without knowing this situation, students who have studied at non-JABEE programs could not be Professional Engineers in their own countries when they go back to their home after the completion of programs. In order to avoid such unfortunate cases, the Malaysian Government grants the government scholarship only to those who have been admitted to JABEE accredited programs.
The Professional Engineer title is licensed by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT). JABEE graduates are exempted from the first step examination of Professional Engineer in Japan.
Suggestion from JABEE to foreign students
JABEE strongly advises to foreign students, who plan to study in Japan with the aim to being international-level professional engineers in the future, to select JABEE accredited programs.