15 years of IChemE-accredited degrees at the University of Santiago de Compostela: A description of the motivation, journey, and output

Abstract

The accrediting scheme by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) constitutes an international reference for the specific accreditation of chemical engineering programmes in higher education. The promoters of the initial 5-year chemical engineering programme at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) identified such scheme as a very attractive value for the continuous improvement of the programme as well as concomitantly for the skills set and employability of its graduates, getting accredited for the first time in 2010 (and renewed in 2013). In adapting this 5-year programme to a sequence of bachelor + master programmes under the Bologna process in the early 2010s, the design of the new programmes was carefully performed to balance adequately the requirements of a considerably regulated framework for the studies of chemical engineering at the Spanish legislative level and the requirements more connected with the chemical engineer profession emphasised by the IChemE accrediting guidelines. The IChemE accreditation has been successfully achieved (2018) and renewed (2024) by both the Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and the Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses at USC, and it has acted not just as a seal of added value but also as a key driving force in keeping the continuous improvement wheel turning. This has been particularly manifested in aspects such as the introduction in the programmes of new content aligned with the new worldwide trends in the field of chemical engineering, and the growing importance given to embedded cultural learning associated with e.g. ethics, sustainability, health and safety, or diversity.