Named degrees are an old chestnut. To some extent it depends upon the University. You could even do a BA in engineering in Cambridge.

As Andy says, the class of degree is very important. Don't expect a stellar career with a 2:2 nowadays.

Do check on accreditation with the appropriate professional bodies.

Chris Pearson said:

Don't expect a stellar career with a 2:2 nowadays.

I have a 3rd  (Misspent youth...)

I'd perhaps put it: expect to have to prove yourself harder with a 2.2 or below (including no degree), and to have to rely much more on personal contacts. You can have a stellar career in engineering with no qualifications at all, but you have to be aware that the "conventional" recruitment doors will often be closed to you, so you are reliant on building clear credibility in other ways and then marketing it - and not all engineers are comfortable marketing themselves.

Once you're in an organisation then in my experience generally no-one cares, it's just getting in in the first place. I did once get caught out when I wanted to promote a technician with no formal qualifications to a "graduate level" engineering position, and HR quite reasonably said "if this person applied externally for this position, so you didn't know them from experience, would you interview them on the basis of their CV?" to which honestly the answer was no. We got round that by using it as an opportunity to persuade the candidate that they really needed to finally at least get their HND (and we sponsored them through it) - of course they sailed through it. But not all employers would be so supportive, so certainly getting the lowest level qualification that is just about acceptable for a role can help your poor manager when they are trying to promote you!

Chris Pearson said:

Do check on accreditation with the appropriate professional bodies.

But again, don't panic about it...at least with the IET, I'd suggest only go with an accredited course over a non accredited course if all other issues are equal. Again, there is very little more work (a matter of hours if that) to demonstrate your competence from a non-accredited course. Of all the candidates (rather a lot) I've helped get CEng/IEng only one or two, if that, had the "right" degree from an accredited course.

And don't take "unaccredited" as a mark of poor quality, getting a course accredited is expensive and time consuming for universities, so if they can fill their courses without it then many will and do. (Remembering that the vast majority of engineering graduates never go for registration, so you can understand why universities question whether it's worth them investing in it.)

Chris Pearson said:

You could even do a BA in engineering in Cambridge.

In fact my Masters (achieved many years after my first degree) is an MA, which in some ways is a bit of a pain as I always have to add what my thesis was actually in to show that it's relevant.

It raises a good point that for a first job application (external or internal) after obtaining a degree it can be really useful to briefly list the key subjects covered, this is much more useful to the recruiting manager than the degree title etc. 

Cheers,

Andy

Chris Pearson said:

Don't expect a stellar career with a 2:2 nowadays.

I have a 3rd  (Misspent youth...)

I'd perhaps put it: expect to have to prove yourself harder with a 2.2 or below (including no degree), and to have to rely much more on personal contacts. You can have a stellar career in engineering with no qualifications at all, but you have to be aware that the "conventional" recruitment doors will often be closed to you, so you are reliant on building clear credibility in other ways and then marketing it - and not all engineers are comfortable marketing themselves.

Once you're in an organisation then in my experience generally no-one cares, it's just getting in in the first place. I did once get caught out when I wanted to promote a technician with no formal qualifications to a "graduate level" engineering position, and HR quite reasonably said "if this person applied externally for this position, so you didn't know them from experience, would you interview them on the basis of their CV?" to which honestly the answer was no. We got round that by using it as an opportunity to persuade the candidate that they really needed to finally at least get their HND (and we sponsored them through it) - of course they sailed through it. But not all employers would be so supportive, so certainly getting the lowest level qualification that is just about acceptable for a role can help your poor manager when they are trying to promote you!

Chris Pearson said:

Do check on accreditation with the appropriate professional bodies.

But again, don't panic about it...at least with the IET, I'd suggest only go with an accredited course over a non accredited course if all other issues are equal. Again, there is very little more work (a matter of hours if that) to demonstrate your competence from a non-accredited course. Of all the candidates (rather a lot) I've helped get CEng/IEng only one or two, if that, had the "right" degree from an accredited course.

And don't take "unaccredited" as a mark of poor quality, getting a course accredited is expensive and time consuming for universities, so if they can fill their courses without it then many will and do. (Remembering that the vast majority of engineering graduates never go for registration, so you can understand why universities question whether it's worth them investing in it.)

Chris Pearson said:

You could even do a BA in engineering in Cambridge.

In fact my Masters (achieved many years after my first degree) is an MA, which in some ways is a bit of a pain as I always have to add what my thesis was actually in to show that it's relevant.

It raises a good point that for a first job application (external or internal) after obtaining a degree it can be really useful to briefly list the key subjects covered, this is much more useful to the recruiting manager than the degree title etc. 

Cheers,

Andy