The Engineering Council urges all persons who wish to study engineering, whether it is in Namibia or in any other country, to ensure that the qualification which they will obtain, is recognized by ECN for registration purposes. This equally applies to students who receive scholarships from the Government to study engineering in foreign countries.
Care should be taken to ensure that the engineering degree/diploma is a fully-fledged engineering degree/diploma recognized by ECN. If studying outside the country, it is essential that you obtain the detailed syllabus (course content of all your subjects), details of lecturers and their qualifications, and details of laboratory facilities, as you will be required to submit these when applying for registration with ECN. Without the detailed information ECN cannot make a proper assessment of your qualification.
Please also note that your undergraduate engineering qualification (first B-Degree) will determine your eligibility to register as an engineer (professional of incorporated), and not a Master’s or PhD degree. A Master’s degree will only be considered as an additional qualification to your undergraduate degree, and only if it was a structured (coursework) Master’s of the same discipline as your undergraduate degree. A PhD degree is a specialist research qualification and does not qualify the holder as an engineer; therefore, it will not be considered for registration. Furthermore, only an undergraduate engineering degree at NQF Level 8 permits an applicant to register as a Professional Engineer, as it trains applicants in the basic and analytical engineering skills. For this reason, an Incorporated Engineer (Technologist) obtaining a Master’s or a PhD degree will not be granted the status of a Professional Engineer unless he/she has completed an undergraduate programme in engineering at NQF Level 8.
When applying for recognition of a qualification not known by the ECN, it will be necessary to supply:
- Certified Copy of Original Qualification (in language of origin).
- Certified Copy of Qualification in English
- Certified Copy of Full Official Academic Record in English
- Curriculum (if not in English, a sworn translation thereof into English)
- Final Year Project (if not in English, a sworn translation thereof into English)
- Detailed Syllabus (if not in English, a sworn translation thereof into English).
Curriculum
A curriculum shows:
- the entry requirements to the qualification
- the length of the study period to obtain the qualification
- the list of subjects of the qualification
- the number of credits per subject
- the total number of credits for the qualification
- how the credits are calculated
- the level (academic complexity) of each subject
Detailed Syllabus
A detailed syllabus might be requested at a later stage during the registration process and will list:
- the topics covered in each subject
- the pre-requisites for the subject
- the number of credits for the subject
- the number of contact hours per subject
- the calculation criteria for the final mark
- the pass rate for the subject.