EUR-ACE® Accord
ENAEE (European Network for Engineering Accreditation), with support from the EU Tempus programme, was
founded on 8 February 2006, by 14 European associations concerned with engineering education. ENAEE is
rooted in the so-called Bologna process which aims at building a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), by
strengthening the competitiveness and attractiveness of European higher education and fostering student
mobility and employability.
ENAEE addresses specifically the education of engineers, whose importance is increasing in the global
economy. ENAEE aims to enhance and promote the quality of the education of engineering graduates in order to
facilitate their professional mobility and to enhance their individual and collective ability to fulfil the needs of
economies and of society.
To achieve these goals, ENAEE authorises accreditation and quality assurance agencies to award the EURACE® (EURopean- ACcredited Engineer) label to their accredited engineering degree programmes. To be
authorised, an agency must satisfy the standards published by ENAEE in the EUR-ACE® Framework Standards
(EAFS) document. Since 2006, the EUR-ACE® label has been awarded to more than 1800 engineering
programmes, delivered in more than 300 universities in 30 countries in Europe and worldwide, by the 13
authorised agencies. These agencies are located in Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
On the 19th November 2014, in the Hotel de Ville, Brussels, Belgium, the 13 authorised agencies signed a Mutual
Recognition Agreement, known as the EUR-ACE® Accord, whereby they accept each other’s accreditation
decisions in respect of Bachelor and Master degree programmes which they accredit. They have also agreed to
make every reasonable effort to ensure that the bodies responsible
(i)
for recognising engineering qualifications
and/or
(ii) for registering or licensing professional engineers to practice in its country or jurisdiction,
accept the comparability of EUR-ACE® labelled programmes accredited by authorized agencies.
It is expected that this agreement will further facilitate the implementation of the EU Directive on Recognition of
Professional Qualifications throughout the European Union.