About ENAEE

ENAEE was founded on 8 February 2006, at the end of the first EUR-ACE® project, by 14 European Associations concerned with engineering education.

It stemmed from ESOEPEthe “European Standing Observatory for the Engineering Profession and Education”, that had been established on 9 September 2000 with the purposes of:

  • building confidence in systems of accreditation of engineering degree programmes within Europe
  • facilitating exchange of information
  • developing voluntary agreements on accreditation of engineering educational programmes and recognition of engineering qualifications and
  • the development of standards for competency requirements of graduate engineers.

Members of ENAEE are agencies and professional organisations with an interest in the education and formation of engineering professionals.

In September 2000

  • ASIIN (DE)
  • CoPI (IT) (now associate member)
  • CTI (FR)
  • EngC (GB)
  • OE (PT)
  • TREE (EU) (no member any more)

Later members

  • AAEPO (KG)
  • AAQ (CH)
  • ABET (US)
  • ACREDITA CI (CL)
  • AEER (RU)
  • ANECA (ES)
  • ARACIS (RO)
  • CAAAE (KZ)
  • CIAEP (UK) (associate member)
  • ECEC (EU) (associate member)
  • EI (IE)
  • Engineers Europe (EU) (associate member)
  • ENTER (PT) (associate member)
  • FIGURE (FR) (associate member)
  • FINEEC (FI)
  • ICACIT (PE)
  • IEET (TP)
  • IIE (ES)
  • KAUT (PL)
  • LACCEI (US) (associate member)
  • MÜDEK (TR)
  • QUACING (IT)
  • SEFI (EU) (associate member)
  • TEK (FI) (associate member)
  • ZIDEK (TR)
  • ZSVTS (SK)

The role of ESOEPE

In April 2004 ESOEPE was instrumental in preparing and submitting to the European Commission the application for the (first) EUR-ACE® project (2004-2006).

In October 2005, In view of the emergence of EUR-ACE, it was decided to transform ESOEPE from an “observatory” into the registered international not-for-profit Association ENAEE, that was formally established on 8 February 2006 in Brussels.

The first ENAEE General Assembly took place on 30 March 2006; since then, Assemblies have been held regularly each year.

The implementation of the EUR-ACE® system started in 2007, with the award of the first EUR-ACE® labels.

ENAEE is the European body responsible for awarding authorisation to accreditation agencies to award the EUR-ACE® label at first and second cycle to engineering programmes which they have accredited.

Building, implementing and spreading the system

The start-up of the EUR-ACE® system has been supported by the European Commission through the projects financed by the DG “Education and Culture”.

EUR-ACE® SPREAD (November 2008 – October 2010)

ENAEE participates in the Academic Network for EUropean and Global ENgineering Education (EUGENE). The EUGENE Network aims at improving the impact of European Engineering Education (EE) on competitiveness, innovation and socio-economic growth in a global context (November 2009 – Present) www.eugene.unifi.it

EUR-ACE® IMPLEMENTATION (September 2006 – August 2008)

EUR-ACE®: European Accredited Engineer (April 2004 – March 2006)

PRO-EAST: PROmotion and implementation of the EUR-ACE® STandards (in Russia) (October 2006 – November 2007)

LEPAC: Creation of a Lebanese Engineering Programs Accreditation Commission (2006 – 2008)

EUR-ACE® Accord

The EUR-ACE® Accord was first established and signed by ENAEE authorised agencies on 19th November 2014

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 EUR-ACE® (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 authorised agencies. These agencies are located in Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, 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,

And accept the comparability of EUR-ACE® labelled programmes accredited by authorised agencies.