Board 89: Concerning Professional Licensure for Civil Engineering Faculty: A Matter of Best Practice

Professional licensure is expected in some engineering fields (civil engineering), but is superfluous in some other engineering fields. Professors may describe the importance of taking the Fundamentals of Engineering exam before students graduate as the first step towards the goal of licensure, but then describe how licensure is not useful to professors. As a result, engineering students may receive mixed messages about the importance of professional licensure. In the Civil Engineering department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, professional licensure and/or significant engineering design experience for faculty is traditionally highly valued. ABET requires that design courses be taught by faculty who are professional engineers, or who have qualification by degree and experience. This paper discusses the ethics of teaching technical content without licensure from the perspective of senior practicing civil engineers, and through personal reflection. This paper also shows initial survey data of the percent of faculty with professional licensure. To discern the ethics of licensure among faculty and whether or not faculty licensure plays a role in students’ ability to be hired, the Board of Advisors for the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology was surveyed. Overall, practitioners agreed that it is ethical for faculty to teach without licensure. To determine the priority of licensure among faculty, civil engineering department heads were asked to report their percent of faculty with licensure. Initial survey data suggested that there is no consensus in terms of licensure expectations across universities. However, from the perspective of educators aiming to serve as role models for students, it is best practice, and not harmful, for faculty members to obtain licensure.