McGill does it again

More proof of the hypothesis put forward here.

McGill has outdone itself again. Ok, this time it's the Faculty of Engineering. More specifically, the Department of Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering.

Before I go on, just some background info. All of McGill's Engineering programmes are accredited. That means the various provincial engineering boards look through the curriculum, and vet it, and basically say that if you've gone to McGill and gotten an engineering degree, it will be recognised and you can join the engineering board so that you can be recognised as a professional engineer.

I found out today from a friend who attended an Engineering Undergraduate Society council meeting as a rep that all of McGill's Software Engineering graduates from last spring until now have degrees that have not been accredited because McGill did not submit the necessary paperwork by the stipulated deadline. So that means that these graduates technically aren't engineers. They can't join the engineering boards, and they can't work as engineers. The paperwork has been submitted, but the school doesn't know when the accreditation will be given, and this could potentially affect Software Engineers who are graduating this Fall.

If you thought that was bad, McGill has not made an official announcement notifying these students of the situation. I've been told that the rationale behind the decision is that because the paperwork has been submitted, they are confident the programme will be accredited eventually. Because there has not been a statement by the school, I don't know if this is true. Whatever the case, these students have spent 3-4 years of their lives paying money to McGill, and have a piece of paper which is basically worthless and they are being kept in the dark about it. In response, the EUS is now trying to inform students by word of mouth.

I can't help but see the irony that in order to have an approved engineering programme, all engineering students have to take a course in engineering ethics, and yet, the school or department responsible for this whole thing doesn't even have the decency to let people know that they screwed up.

And it's not like it's a minor problem - these graduates are losing out on job opportunities because Software Engineering is a relatively new degree (it's about 3-4 years old, and some of my friends suspect that they may have been the first class of Software Engineers to graduate from McGill, though we don't know for sure), and there are few people with such a qualification around right now. The fact that it is relatively new might also be a factor in explaining why the situation has arisen, but again, this is just me speculating.

Whatever it is, I think the hypothesis has been sufficiently proven.

McGill Admin is f$%king messed up.