The Enigma of Engineering

This article probes the soundness of the policy underlying the industrial exemption. It concludes that, although emergence of the exemption was a natural consequence of engineering’s close alliance from the very start with big business, the exemption has thwarted engineering’s development as a bona fide profession. It also concludes that only with elimination or a significant reengineering of the exemption can the profession truly expect to attain profession status. Such a rethinking about the exemption will come only with a major change in attitude by engineering practitioners as to what it means to be an engineer.

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