A group of some 150 engineers has banded together and is mulling legal action against the government’s Engineering Profession Board over warrants being handed to Mcast students.
Engineer Arthur Ciantar, part of the team that recently set up the Warranted Engineers Action Group (WEAG), said that despite requests, a report auditing the Mcast programme has yet to be made public.
As a result, engineers were now questioning whether the course offered at the college was equivalent to that of the University of Malta, insisting that the group was against the issuing of warrants to Mcast students until the report was published and “the situation clarified”.
A request by university students to the Engineering Profession Board, which is the regulating authority, for the report, was turned down in November. Both the programmes of the Faculty of Engineering at the university and at Mcast were subject to evaluation by the Accreditation Agency Specialised in Accrediting Degree Programmes in Engineering, Informatics, the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (ASIIN).
Now, the group of warranted engineers – around 150 people, according to Mr Ciantar – are seeking legal advice and considering taking action against the board over its refusal to publish the report.
“We want the report to be published so that everything is transparent and we can know what the course entails. Why hasn’t this been published?
“Something seems amiss,” Mr Ciantar said.
Attempts by the Times of Malta to contact the Engineering Profession Board for a comment proved futile.
Until September, Mcast students who followed the engineering course could not apply for their warrant as the course was deemed to be “vocational” by the Engineering Profession Board and not eligible for professional recognition.
However, as of this scholastic year, graduates from both the university and the college could apply for a warrant.
Mcast students had repeatedly argued that the board was discriminating against them by not granting them the warrant, claiming their course was the same as that offered at the university.
Meanwhile, Mr Ciantar said the group was also seeking advice from its legal advisor, Michael Tanti Dougall, on revisions to the Engineering Profession Act which are scheduled to come into force later this year.
“We know that a revision is in the pipeline but we don’t know much else. We’re in the dark as to this will be a revision or a fresh Act,” Mr Ciantar said, adding there were concerns that some of the changes could raise issued, as was the case with those made to the Education Act last year.
claire.caruana@timesofmalta.com