GUC loses fight for recognition of engineering graduates
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday July 11, 2023 06:00
The college lost the case on Friday despite being a Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) accredited course.
GUC had dragged ERB and its chairperson before court arguing that the decision of the board of not recognising the college’s degree, Bachelor of Technology in Construction and Engineering, as not furnishing sufficient evidence of adequate academic training in engineering, was wrong and needed to be reviewed and set aside.
However, Gaborone High Court judge, Micahel Leburu did not agree with the college’s argument as he dismissed the application saying the Board was immune from judicial scrutiny and the application lacked merit. “I I accordingly defer to the reasonable and lawful decisions of the Board which is a specialised body set up to assess academic programmes within the engineering field.
In essence, the decisions of the Board are therefore immune from judicial scrutiny. The present application is deficient in merit and substance. Consequently, it is dismissed with costs,” he said. Justice Leburu explained that the fact that the college’s academic programme has been accredited by the BQA was not dispositive because the regulatory schemes under the BQA and the Engineers Registration Board were distinct and separate.
He pointed out that the two Acts buttressing the two regulatory schemes were cognate Acts that rank on equal footing and stature and also that there was no specific provision in the BQA Act that places it on a higher pedestal and elevation than the Engineers Registration Act. “None of the two Acts takes precedence over the other, hence accreditation by the BQA does not, ipso facto and ipso jure, mean that the Engineers Board is bound to accredit such a BQA-accredited programme, without much ado.
The two regulatory bodies use two different types of approved lenses in the assessment of academic programmes,” said the judge. Justice Leburu added that the board has been given the mandate to prescribe the eligibility requirements for persons applying to be registered under the Act to practise professional engineering which gives it the power to assess registration applications and if it is satisfied that an applicant satisfies the requirements of the Act and has further demonstrated competence, as measured against standards determined or set by the Board for registration then permit such registration. Leburu noted that in the college’s case, the Board has set standards to be met for registration which are the standards used by the Engineering Council of Namibia while it has also set the Washington, Dublin, and Sydney Accords as applicable in Botswana. “Although these are external standards from other jurisdictions, the Engineers Board has adopted them.
The regulatory scheme, as gleaned from the Act, has not precluded them from adopting standards from other jurisdictions,” he explained. He said by adopting external standards, the Board is merely benchmarking and standard-setting, against such external criteria. “This benchmarking accords well with best international practice in that benchmarking improves product quality, which is envisaged to promote the highest standards of engineering practices in Botswana.
Such benchmarking, in my view, is not an abdication of delegated authority, but it's standard-setting,” he said. Meanwhile, according to the college’s case, the Engineers Board has registered and continues to register graduates from other tertiary education providers to the exclusion of graduates from GUC. The college argued that its graduates holding Bachelor of Technology in Construction and Engineering, are refused registration as engineering technologists, without lawful basis by the Board.
The college further contended that the Board has even required them to accredit and or comply with requirements of foreign accreditation bodies, which have no jurisdiction in Botswana, like the Engineering Council of South Africa and the Engineering Council of Namibia.