The Washington Accord is an agreement among accrediting agencies, called signatories, to recognise each other’s accredited degrees as providing the educational foundation for independent practice as a professional engineer.

The fifteen signatories of the Washington Accord agreed, on 12 June 2014, to admit the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) as a signatory of the Accord. This decision reflects the attainment of three things during the IESL’s period in provisional status in the Accord. First, the outcome standard applied by IESL in accrediting programmes is substantially equivalent to that defined in the Graduate Attribute exemplar of the Washington Accord. Second, the accreditation process applied by IESL is substantially equivalent to that of other Accord signatories. Third, the IESL accreditation system is judged to be sustainable.

Signatory status in the Washington Accord brings a number of responsibilities that I am confident that IESL will discharge effectively. Every six years from admission, fellow signatories will, as with all signatories, re-examine the standards, processes and sustainability of IESL as listed above to confirm continued signatory status. The IESL will be expected to participate as a signatory in Accord processes including its reviews, developmental work and decision-making meetings.

Signatory status brings benefits to persons graduating from programmes accredited by IESL after the date of admission. These graduates will join the graduates of some 7500 programmes around the world in holding a degree with a Washington Accord quality mark.
In conclusion, I congratulate the IESL on its initiatives to meet the Washington Accord standards and, as a result of these efforts, being admitted as a signatory to our growing Accord.

Dr. Hu Hanrahan
Chairman, Special Washington Accord Edition
Emeritus Professor, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg