Impact of Entry Standards on Engineering Sustainability in Australia

This report investigates the sustainability of engineering entry standards in Australia, focusing on the civil engineering perspective. It examines the current regulatory framework, including previous attempts to regulate entry standards and their impact on productivity and efficiency. The report compares Australia's engineering regulations with those of other countries, such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, assessing the desirability of applying these measures to the Australian context. The analysis highlights the impact of registration systems, the implications of lower entry standards, and the potential adverse effects on the national economy and public safety. The report emphasizes the importance of competent engineering professionals and the need for a uniform regulatory program to harmonize standards and improve efficiency across the Australian economy. The findings suggest that over-reliance on voluntary registration frameworks can lead to incompetent practitioners and that statutory registration is essential for safeguarding the community and ensuring appropriate standards of competency.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY 1
Sustainability
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Previous Attempts to Regulate Entry Standards to Professional University Degrees in Australia
and their Eventual Impact................................................................................................................5
Impact of Engineering Registration Systems in Australia...........................................................6
The Impact of Regulatory Schemes on Productivity and Efficiency...........................................8
Comparison between Australia’s Engineering Regulations with Policy Measures Enacted in
Other Countries..............................................................................................................................10
Registration and Licensing of Engineers Internationally...........................................................11
Canada........................................................................................................................................11
United States of America...........................................................................................................11
United Kingdom.........................................................................................................................11
New Zealand..............................................................................................................................12
Japan...........................................................................................................................................12
Greece........................................................................................................................................13
Germany.....................................................................................................................................13
Korea..........................................................................................................................................13
Comparison between Australia’s Engineering Regulations with Policy Measures Enacted in
Other Countries..........................................................................................................................13
The Sustainability Implications of Lower Entry Standards to the Engineering and Information
Technology Professions from Civil Engineering Perspective.......................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
Currently, there is no society or nation that can thrive without embracing of engineering
at some point. In regard to the teaching perspectives the principles of engineering as well as the
products of engineering are all around teachers and students. For instance, objects such as seats,
buildings as well as other teaching materials among many other things around the world could
have been in existence without engineering and engineers (Bong, Rameezdeen, Zuo, Li, & Ye,
2015). Therefore, education is important to both present and future generations. Hence, the
prospect of education will make engineers ever more important. Engineering services are crucial
to the economic progress of Australia as well as its social well-being. In this sense, Australia is
fortunate to be in passion of a solid base of globally treasured engineering expertise and
experience in its engineering colleges, corporations and specialized associations. Nevertheless,
as Australia endeavors to become a unified competitive nationwide economy at both local and
international in driving continued production growth; it is believed the inconsistent legislation
has been creating a hindrance and red tape layers hindering certain critical service suppliers
within the engineering economy. Hence this issue need to be deliberated and addressed.
Scholars and academicians are certain that similar considerations should be provided to
harmonize the Australian engineers’ regulation in all territories and states. This could serve as a
significant milestone in reforming the productivity of Australia (Dandy, Daniell, Foley, &
Warner, 2017). In this sense, this paper seeks to investigate ways that engineers are presently
regulated in Australia and demonstrate the actual as well as probable adverse effects the existing
regulatory framework has on the productivity of engineers and the safety of the public (Bong et
al., 2015). In addition to that, it demonstrate how the regulatory framework is worsening the skill
scarcities with possibly harmful effects to the national economy. This paper will as well as

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compare Australia’s existing reengineering regulations with policy measures enacted in other
countries and assess the desirability of their applications to the engineering professions in
Australia. Lastly but not least, the paper will assess the sustainability implications of lower entry
standards to the engineering and information technology professions from the perspective of civil
engineering.
Previous Attempts to Regulate Entry Standards to Professional University Degrees in
Australia and their Eventual Impact
Currently Australia does not have a uniform regulatory regime that convers engineers.
Engineering services are controlled by several Acts: orders-in council, by-laws and regulators. A
majority of the regulations are connected to the construction and building industry. For instance,
in Queensland State engineers are required to be registered to render proficient engineering
services. This means that in other states in Australia engineers are not registered but they provide
professional engineering services. In some states they have de facto registering systems, whereby
engineers carrying out certain work should be registered on a nationwide engineering index. The
National Engineering Registration Board (BERB) governs the voluntary cataloging of engineers
and sets competence criteria. NERB is supported by the Association of Consulting Engineers
Australia, currently referred to as Consult Australia. The NERB has representation by all
Territory governments and States, professional associations and community organizations
(Dandy, Daniell, Foley, & Warner, 2017). Therefore, NERB supervises several National
Registers governed by Engineers Australia such as National Engineering Technologists Register
(NETR), National Professional Engineers Register (NPER), and National Engineering
Associates Register (NEAR). These registers are tasked with administration services to safeguard
the community.

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In Australia the National Professional Engineers Register (NPER) is the major body for
registering specialized engineers. Even through registering on the NERP is voluntary for
engineers, it is extensively acknowledge by local authorities and many Territory and State
governments. Therefore, NPER is involved in regulation associated with certification, design and
health and safety of building and construction services. However, overreliance on a voluntary
registering framework is the failure to avert incompetent practitioners from providing
engineering services. To address this challenge, removing or declining to register engineers from
a mandatory register can be overcomed. The prerequisite for registering on NPER is a four-year
college straining to qualify as an engineer that has to be accredited by Engineers Australia.
Applicants are required to demonstrate that they have the ability to practice proficiently by
satisfying the Australian Engineering Competency Standard Stage 2. Consequently, engineers
who have these qualifications and have enough practical experience can apply for valuation at
Stage 2 in the area of training that they are registering. It is a requirements that there is proof of
experience based on work in the area of training for registering on NPER. In this case, it is
possible for engineers to get registered on the National Professional Engineers Register even if
they are not associates of Engineering Australia. Nonetheless, members of Engineering Australia
who have attained the present Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) status and have
confirmed competency at Stage 2 are only required to exhibit proficiency within the area they are
seeking to register.
Impact of Engineering Registration Systems in Australia
Safeguarding customers and the community. Without a statutory registering system for
engineers, consumers are exposed to all manners of risks for them to investigate and make
judgement regarding the suitability of a given engineering and their capability to accomplish the

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required work. To determine a qualified engineer is expensive, especially for consumers without
engineering services. The major risks to consumers is as a result of engineering practitioners
making attempts to perform work without sufficient competencies. However, the effects are
always costly in monetary terms as well as disastrous in human terms. To the purchaser of the
engineering services include litigation costs, construction and design expenses, lost production
and rectification expenses. In this essence, a constitutional registration system helps the market
by giving consumers information regarding the education as well as engineers skill levels.
Consequently, this allows customers to make informed choices that aid to reducing risks related
with selecting services based on value alone.
However, an environment that is not regulated could result in working incompetence for
industry. Instances have been reported where aptly qualified as well as skilled engineers have
failed to be involved, which have led to poor design that in the end led to failure and ecological
degradation. To prevent such type of failures, it calls for the work undertaken by a competent
and qualified engineering professional. The existence of mandatory statutory registration allow
codes of practices to be published and enforced uniformly. In addition, statutory regulations
offers extensive mechanisms for solving disputers. On the same note in the case of incompetence
and misconduct these standards can be suspended or revoked. Also, statutory registration bodies
offers appropriate compensation procedures. Currently, the Australian Standards is supposed to
shift to risk-based codes to increase the need for competent and qualified engineers to interpret,
develop and adhere to these standards. This will also provide clear systems that will protect
consumers against incompetent and unqualified practitioners.
Statutory registration frameworks ensure appropriate standards of competency are
established and evaluated and getting rid of incompetent engineers from the system (O’Neill,

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Sohal, & Teng, 2016). In the process, this hells to safeguard the community from impairment.
However, this process is impossible under the voluntary registration systems. Therefore, the
Australian capability to ensuring that engineering skill is presently restricted by the ad-hoc state
System because of several engineering regulatory bodies.
The Impact of Regulatory Schemes on Productivity and Efficiency
Currently in Australia, engineers working within the country are protected by different
Acts and principles, which contain diverse proficiency standards and procedures a majority of
which are voluntary registration (Ohlhausen, & Okuliar, 2015). At the same time these governing
and quasi-regulatory governments run by State and local administrations enforce different
performance-based principles. Consequently, this forces engineers to work according to these
standards, which creates complexity and additional compliance expenses. However, due to
diverse engineering statutory regulations it has been dragging the Australian economy because of
the segmented and State barriers that inhibits the flow of services. Indeed, the difference in local
and State government engineering statutory regulatory systems has made the compliance with
regulation cumbersome and expensive. In this regard, there is need for a uniform program to be
established so that it can progressively harmonize regulations to make the compliance highly
efficient for companies to operate across the economy of Australia.
According to a research conducted by business employing engineers carried out by the
Engineers Australia has found that Australia has a deficit of engineers (Reich et al., 2015). For
example, the research performed by the Engineers Australia found that nearly 75% of the
business had a shortage of skilled engineers, and more than 80% of the business could not
recruits the needed engineering skill set. Similarly, projections by leading industry professionals
argue that in the coming years the Australian government will spent over 500 billion dollars on

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infrastructure projects like, telecommunication, road, water, electricity and rail. Thus, this
requires that significant engineering resources. However, the crisis for engineering services
remains high especially in states such as Queensland, and Western Australia, which are resource-
rich states. This situation has been worsened by the aging nature of the profession with more
than 30% of the present membership of the Engineers Australia with age above 50 years. This
means that mobility of trade is a major challenge for engineering professionals. Generally, this
impact has been contributed to by differences in statutory regulatory systems from one State to
another. For instance, the current Productivity Commission demands that architects should
register and pay a separate registration fee for each State and Territory that they would like to
practice in, which has become an obstacle for architects working across jurisdictions.
Average engineering undergraduate completion rate in Australia between 2002-2010

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According to the report by the Australia National Engineering Taskforce (ANET) even
though during this period the engineering undergraduate degrees increased by over 20% between
2002 and 2010 the higher degree by research enrolments in engineering remained steady over the
entire period.
Comparison between Australia’s Engineering Regulations with Policy Measures Enacted in
Other Countries
In Australia, there several statutory registration systems, which have made its expensive
for the consumer since local and State governments have restricted the number of potential
service providers by entry restrictions. In doing so, this increase the expenses incurred by

SUSTAINABILITY 10
engineering firms by requiring them to pay registration fees (Aung, Alexander, Saliah-Hassane,
& Sandnes, 2013). Consequently, this view has failed to put into consideration the significant
costs to the state economy as well as the public. Hence, it leads to the provision of inferior
services when inept practitioners are capable of rendering these services.
On the other hand, in other countries the statutory cost has been established by the
national registration model. The national statutory registration model is less costly as compared
to Australia’s segmented registration system that consists of myriad different registration
requirements. Accordingly, a single registration scheme for engineers helps to drive
competencies across the whole profession and also improves the efficiency of engineers as well
as their efficiencies (Matar, Osman, Georgy, Abou-Zeid, & El-Said, 2017). Similarly, the
national statutory registration system does not acknowledge the existence of ad-hoc registration
systems as it is the case in Australia. Successively, this save all engineering practices that operate
across jurisdictional borders.
Registration and Licensing of Engineers Internationally
In this part, the paper presents the approach undertaken to register and license engineers
in international countries such as New Zealand, Canada, the United States of America, Japan, the
United Kingdom and Korea among others.
Canada
In Canada engineering is controlled by self-governing skilled licensing bodies at the
territorial and provincial level. Canada has twelve licensing bodies which are tasked with
ensuring that there are high standards of engineering practices as well as education. These
licensing bodies are tasked with taking appropriate actions to avert illegal engineering practices
by individuals who are not licensed. Out of the twelve licensing bodies each is body has been

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mandated by a specific Engineering Act. In regards to education, the Canadian Council of
Professional Engineers (CCPE) has the responsibility to promote uniformity in experimental and
educational standards for admissions to the occupation as well as licensure.
United States of America
In the United States, there is no fortification of the title of “engineer” or even a
nationwide register. However, there exists a structure of licensing engineers which is run by
every state. For an engineers to be issued with a license one has to pass examinations in the
fundamental of engineering. This examinations are written after graduating and engineering
philosophies that are written after several years of experience under supervision (Matar et al.,
2017). The license is only needed for restricted activities such as signing of particular design
drawings.
United Kingdom
The Engineering Council in the UK is officially acknowledged by the administration
through a memorandum of understanding. For an individual to become qualified for registering
with the Engineering Council one has to obtain membership with a Council nominated
engineering institution who in turn will nominate the individual for registration with the Council.
To register with the Council one is required to have completed a ratified engineering course, a
prerequisite period of practical experience and the minimum age condition. Therefore, it is the
responsibility of the Council to license its associate institutions to evaluate and certify academic
programs at colleges and universities (Goh, & Chua, 2016). The Council also assesses the
practical the practical practice of its memberships for the reward of Chartered Engineer (CEng)
status.

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New Zealand
In New Zealand engineers are disclosed under the Chartered Professional Engineers of
New Zealand Act 2002. This Act require that engineers should prove continuous practice
competently to maintain their registration. This Act allows complaints in regards to the
engineering performance services as well as unethical conducts for investigation by the
registration authority.
Japan
In Japan qualified engineers are registered under two distinct legal charters. These legal
frameworks is tasked with regulating engineers working with infrastructure as well as other
regulators engineers on other industries like aerospace, manufacturing, electrical, chemical
processing, computing and electronics. Registration is key for the former, but the letter is
dominated by big industry and registration is not compulsory. Registration as an engineer in
Japan is achieved by successful accomplishment of professional engineering tests which takes
two stages.
Greece
In Greece all qualified engineers are registered by the Technical Chamber of Greece.
Registration is a requisite for practice in the engineering occupation. The primary engineering
prerequisite requirement is a five-year course and thereafter the title is safeguarded by law.
Germany
In German engineers are regulated by Germany’s 16 Lander that allows one to use the
title Ingeneiur. This title is used by engineering and science alumnae from German academia and
colleges of applied science or a correspondent private engineering institution. However,