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What is Fellowship?

Alex Barrett
I'm not sure which forum this belongs in, this seems to be the closest?


A question, what is Fellowship in the context of the IET? Is it the recognition by the profession of somebody who stands out in their field, their profession and in general as an engineer and character? Or is it just a "supersize" membership.

As the only route to Fellowship of the IET seems to be by applying on your own behalf, it looks like the latter. There doesn't seem to be any scope for recognising those engineers who really do stand out, but aren't self-seeking enough to look for recognition. I know personally some engineers who in my opinion are natural Fellows but would never put themselves forward for this recognition.
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    Cyril

    You have rejuvenated a forum from a few years ago but I guess this is addressed to me (I am now a past-Chair of the Fellowship Policy Committee but I’ll make a start on answering your questions).

    The first thing to note is that the point of the criteria is provide a structure for compatibility between very diverse engineering careers.  However, the main focus is to demonstrate sustained high levels of achievement in the industry.  Sustained means at least 5 years at that high level – this is different to many other Institutions who, for Fellowship, only require that level to have been reached at the time of application.  So, to answer the first question, the criteria are indeed the same for industry and academia but the main point being considered is that the individual is considered to have made a major contribution in their field and is respected as such.

    As you suggest, Creativity and Innovation are widely used as criteria by applicants from academia.  They are equally relevant to applicants from industry in the R&D field as well but most applicants from Industry use other criteria such as Leadership, Responsibility or Insight and Experience.  Someone who has a brilliant idea and sets up a company, turns it in into a product and makes a success of it may meet all those criteria but actually apply under the Enterprise criteria as well as one of those.  So, it is really about how you tell your story using the criteria as a structure.  Taking your specific question about patents this is perfectly acceptable as evidence but it is about how you got them and what you did with them as part of your story-line, so it is not sufficient in its own right.

    You are right that the main feature of the Innovation criterion is that there is a product or other outcome in the marketplace.  Clearly an application to the IET is confidential but precise details need not be revealed.  People from the defence and security industries are able to describe principles and achievements without revealing secrets and I’m sure this is true of industry generally too.

    If you want your own case considered in more detail then you should contact a Fellowship adviser via the IET to review your situation to consider if an application is worthwhile.

    Ian
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  • 0
    Cyril

    You have rejuvenated a forum from a few years ago but I guess this is addressed to me (I am now a past-Chair of the Fellowship Policy Committee but I’ll make a start on answering your questions).

    The first thing to note is that the point of the criteria is provide a structure for compatibility between very diverse engineering careers.  However, the main focus is to demonstrate sustained high levels of achievement in the industry.  Sustained means at least 5 years at that high level – this is different to many other Institutions who, for Fellowship, only require that level to have been reached at the time of application.  So, to answer the first question, the criteria are indeed the same for industry and academia but the main point being considered is that the individual is considered to have made a major contribution in their field and is respected as such.

    As you suggest, Creativity and Innovation are widely used as criteria by applicants from academia.  They are equally relevant to applicants from industry in the R&D field as well but most applicants from Industry use other criteria such as Leadership, Responsibility or Insight and Experience.  Someone who has a brilliant idea and sets up a company, turns it in into a product and makes a success of it may meet all those criteria but actually apply under the Enterprise criteria as well as one of those.  So, it is really about how you tell your story using the criteria as a structure.  Taking your specific question about patents this is perfectly acceptable as evidence but it is about how you got them and what you did with them as part of your story-line, so it is not sufficient in its own right.

    You are right that the main feature of the Innovation criterion is that there is a product or other outcome in the marketplace.  Clearly an application to the IET is confidential but precise details need not be revealed.  People from the defence and security industries are able to describe principles and achievements without revealing secrets and I’m sure this is true of industry generally too.

    If you want your own case considered in more detail then you should contact a Fellowship adviser via the IET to review your situation to consider if an application is worthwhile.

    Ian
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