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Institute of Fire Engineers proposal to drop "Engineer" from its name

Given the many discussions on these forums on the elevation or degradation of value in the title of professional "Engineer", this flashed across my screen today from the Engineering Councils Group on LinkedIn:

The Institute of Fire Engineers is seeking views of a proposal to drop "Engineer" from its Charter/title to become the Institute of Fire - the motive being to recognise the other "non-engineer" professionals. An interesting thought/discussion: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4186272/4186272-6417693404800516097?midToken=AQE7XfdYZDnQ2w&trk=eml-b2_anet_digest_of_digests-group_discussions-18-discussion%7Esubject&trkEmail=eml-b2_anet_digest_of_digests-group_discussions-18-discussion%7Esubject-null-1394au%7Ejizt468n%7E2o-null-communities%7Egroup%7Ediscussion&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Aemail_b2_anet_digest_of_digests%3B0ufgjyqaTWOdcqzjHicqaQ%3D%3D.

Also interesting because they "are really interested in receiving comments from all sectors including registrants with other PEIs".
https://www.ife.org.uk/IFE-News/royal-charter-recognising-the-status-of-fire-professionals

0 Alex Barrett over 6 years ago

I noticed recently that 'The Institution of Lighting Engineers' became 'The Institution of Lighting Professionals' in 2002.
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0 Roy Bowdler over 6 years ago

I thought that it might inform any discussion better if I offered some context. According to Engineering Council figures for 2017, IFE has circa 500 members who are registered via Engineering Council. About half are Eng Tech and the other half CEng there are 20 IEng. It seems that it has over 10000 members, so only 5% seem to be attracted by affiliation to the UK Engineering Council.

The IFE assesses knowledge of fire and professional experience, awarding internationally recognised membership grades and fire-related qualifications, through the awarding body that is registered with OFQUAL. in 2016 the IFE received around 5,000 examination entries in March and a further 1000 entries were received for the October examination session, which are required by many Fire and Rescue Services for promotion both within the UK and internationally.

In this context, it seems that seeking their own charter has a rationale, although in general UK professional bodies seek a charter if they can, although Privy Council who grant this don’t want a plethora of chartered bodies.

Charters are granted rarely these days, and a body applying for a Charter would normally be expected to meet a number of criteria. https://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/royal-charters/applying-for-a-royal-charter/

Some years ago I was given a tour of the Fire Engineering Department of the University of Central Lancashire who have a strong reputation in this area, so I recommend their website as an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the “Engineering” aspects. Specialist suppliers also obviously train their own staff (eg alarms, sprinkler systems etc)

For additional context, the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, which added “Chartered” to its title in 2009 has only 1 Engineering Council CEng, with 889 Eng Tech and 110 IEng from circa 8000 members. I’m unclear of how the academic benchmark specified by Privy Council, or the overlap with CIBSE as representing the more academically orientated were addressed. No criticism implied, just an observation?
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Institute of Fire Engineers proposal to drop "Engineer" from its name

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