Law for engineering undergraduates on accredited courses

Abstract

To achieve economies of scale, engineering departments in UK universities may choose to develop common modules. Law is a candidate for such shared delivery. However, professional institution accreditation for undergraduate degree programmes is important. Therefore engineering professional institutions' accreditation documentation was analysed and the relevant law requirements were extracted and summarised. The accreditation role of the Engineering Council and Joint Board of Moderators is explained. In addition, in recognition of the close relationship between civil engineering and construction the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Chartered Institute of Building's requirements were scrutinised. This paper then critiques the engineering and construction professional institutions' law requirements. Some overlap between the legal topics required by engineering and construction professional institutions is identified; for example, the legal framework, contract, environmental and health and safety law. They differ in that engineering bodies additionally require intellectual property awareness and construction institutions include dispute resolution and land law. It can be argued that both professional bodies should recognise the importance of European law. Who was consulted about the content and who could teach law to engineering and construction undergraduates is questioned. There is some commonality between the requirements of the engineering and construction professional institutions facilitating the delivery of shared law modules.