Will a Masters Degree soon be necessary for a PE?

[MI-Roger]

I was reading my recent copy of Civil Engineering magazine last night.  I read the first paragraph of the article on page 18 and stopped dead.  I read the paragraph two more times just to be sure I hadn't misinterpreted it.  The paragraph starts an article discussing a new Master of Civil Engineering degree being offered specifically for working engineers (Univ of Kansas if interested).  This degree program was created to meet ASCE Policy Statement 465.

Policy Statement 465 is quoted as stating that Practicing Engineers need 30 Hours of Graduate Credits, or 30 hours of advanced Undergraduate Credits, or a Masters Degree in addition to their Bachelors Degree!

Granted this is a Policy Statement from an Engineering Professional Organization and not a legislated requirement by any licensing jurisdiction - yet.

This movement for additional required education won't impact me personally since I already have a Masters of Engineering and will be retiring within 2-5 years.  I also support the concept of additional education.  It certainly can or will affect those who only recently entered, or have not yet entered, the profession. Will the PE become three tiered; with the initial FE, an intermediate PE level until the additional education requirements are met, then the full and final PE?

 

[Dean Agnostic]

In my view, the Academic Institutions and the majority seems to be going that route and the minority seems to be getting their experience outside of school after their Bachelor's Degree. For me personally,  years of experience outside of school levels the playing field and  is equally important as Graduate Degrees and Doctoral Degrees. As the old saying goes, "the man with money meets the man with experience, the man with experience ends up with the money and the man with money end up with experience." 

 

[RBHeadge PE]

This idea has been floating around for a few years now. To the best of my knowledge, no state has even started looking into potentially changing their educational requirements for licensure. I sorta doubt it'll happen in the next ten years, or ever.

It will be a very long and complicated process to get the educational requirements changed. Each state/territory has slightly different requirements to obtain a PE and most of those requirements are written into statute. Changing laws is NEVER quick and easy and you'll never get all 55 jurisdictions to make the transition at the same time. If it ever happens, and that's a big "IF", there will be a period of time when some states require a masters (or BS +30) and some states would not.

FWIW, the 55 jurisdictions don't even agree on the education requirement. There are variations all over the place: BS Engineering, BS Engineering Technology, ABET accreditation at time of graduation, science undergrad + engineering grad, minimum professional experience depending on type of degree, etc. But the nominal PE path never requires more than a BS Engr as the base education requirement.

 

[snickerd3]

the effort had some steam for awhile but they stepped back in more recent times.  

 

[youngmotivatedengineer]

While it may be good in theory it's a lot harder to implement.  Besides agreeing to additional educational requirements,  I don't believe there are any major organizations that accredit Master programs the way ABET does undergraduate programs.  This would have to be established first so that all Master programs meet specific requirements. 

 

[bsimms89]

I remember my professors telling me that in freshman year of undergrad, and then throughout undergrad, and then while i was getting my M ENG, and then while I was getting work experience and now I'm taking the PE and they're still just speculating on that change.

 

[RBHeadge PE]

While it may be good in theory it's a lot harder to implement.  Besides agreeing to additional educational requirements,  I don't believe there are any major organizations that accredit Master programs the way ABET does undergraduate programs.  This would have to be established first so that all Master programs meet specific requirements. 

ABET accredits Associates, Bachelors, and Masters degree programs. But they will only accredit one program per school. So most schools will get their undergraduate (bachelors) programs accredited instead of the masters.

For the purposes of licensing, I know that Pennsylvania will administratively treat an engineering masters degree as accredited if the same bachelors program at that school is accredited.

 

[youngmotivatedengineer]

But that is the problem,  if you are going to require a Masters degree they all haveto be accredited by the same board. Currently ABET only accredits 36 schools for Master degrees, and its not all programs for each of those schools. 

 

[quique07]

While I agree that experience should be weight more than having a masters, I don't personally think this will be a real big issue in the future, if it was to become a requirement. These days, more people are getting their masters anyways. Is like the HS Diploma in the 90s and Bachelors in the 00s. Back then, a HS Diploma will go a long way, eventually a BS was needed to become competitive. Soon, a Masters will be needed to stay competitive (if not already...)

 

[CAPLS]

Licensed professional engineers are not disciplined and lose their license because they lack education.