Acredita CI, together with the Colegio de Ingenieros de Chile, participates in the initiatives of the Washington Accord and the Lima Accord, and will continue in its internationalization process, with the purpose of promoting and facilitating the employment insertion of Chilean engineers in the world. In addition to making available to the country, a mechanism that ensures that engineering programs are incorporating solid mechanisms for improving the quality of education offered through updated and innovative graduation profiles.
Each of the signatory countries to the Washington Accord has explicit procedures for the process of recognition of engineering degrees obtained abroad.
Accrediting Agencies make the best of their efforts so that this accreditation is recognized for this process in their countries of origin, since the Accord establishes that between signatory countries, accreditation is recognized as the tool that ensures substantial equivalence of education.
Detail of the process in general (between certain countries there may be differences with the process indicated here):
- The country of destination verifies in the first instance whether the program from which the graduate comes, has valid accreditation under the international criteria of the Washington Accord and granted by the Accrediting Agency of the country of origin signatory to the Accord within its own jurisdiction. This information is verified through the website of the respective Agency and has been reported to the country by the applicant for degree recognition.
- The country verifies the expiration date of the program accreditation.
- The country verifies the date that the Agency that granted the accreditation was incorporated as a signatory member of the Accord.
- If the degree obtained by the applicant is after the date of accreditation granted to the program and that accreditation was granted by the Agency in its capacity as a signatory member, then the graduate enters, in most cases, to a process that facilitates substantively her/his degree recognition.
- Otherwise, and her/his degree is earlier, must apply by the traditional route, which includes in most cases, the presentation to the revalidating entity of a set of legalized records of the degree in which he/she studied and a long period of time to that his/her degree is finally recognized or has the results of this procedure.
- The signatories to the Washington Accord do not have the obligation to recognize the degrees of the Chilean engineers of the programs accredited by Acredita CI in the process that facilitates their insertion, as long as the Agency is not a full member of the Accord. However, it is suggested to find out directly when applicable.
It is important to visit the Websites of the authorized entities to validate the degrees of each country and verify the existence of the mechanisms indicated, prior to carrying out any degree recognition procedure.
In any case, it is suggested to explicitly indicate in application process for the revalidation of degrees abroad, that the program has been accredited by Acredita CI and that the accreditation is valid (check on the Acredita CI Website, Accredited Programs), even though the Agency is not yet a signatory member of the Washington Accord, this accreditation is already a recognition of the quality of engineering education for that program.
In Chile, the Colegio de Ingenieros de Chile maintains a Memorandum of Understanding with the Universidad de Chile, the entity in charge of the process of recognition of degrees obtained abroad, in which the University undertakes to verify that the accreditation of the programs of the graduates from abroad have been granted by the Accrediting Agency of a country signatory to the Washington Accord when appropriate, and that this data will allow a much more expedited recognition process than the current one. This will officially begin operating once Acredita CI is a full member of the Washington Accord.