Nepal Engineering Council prepares bill to conduct licensing test

Kathmandu / Jan 26: Nepal Engineering Council (NEC) is all set to make provisions for conducting licensing tests before issuing licenses to students completing their engineering studies within the country or abroad.

NEC is the engineering regulatory body that is responsible for making this sector more systematic and dignified.

The provision for conducting the licensing exam has been mentioned with priority in the draft of the bill for amending the Engineering Council Act, 2055 BS. NEC has taken the initiatives to amend the Act. The bill also has made provision for appointing the Registrar of the Council through an open competition and making him/her work full time. The bill also has a provision for providing perks and benefits to the Registrar commensurate with a Joint Secretary in the civil service.

Council Chair Dilli Raman Niraula said the suggestions and feedback related to reforms needed in the engineering sector received from the experts have been included in the bill.

The bill has already been sent to the House of Representatives before it was dissolved. It took nearly two years to prepare the bill. But it seems that it will take time for the bill to become a law as the House of Representatives stands dissolved at present.

Forty-five engineering colleges affiliated to six universities including Tribhuvan University are running engineering programs in the country.

The practice so far has been to issue licenses to engineering students within a few days after they apply for the same after completing the due process.

Similarly, the Council has been issuing the license after verifying the equivalence with regard to students completing engineering degrees from 744 educational institutions of 41 countries.

The Council, established in 2056 BS, has so far issued licenses to 60,936 engineers. Among them, 52,880 are males and 7,562 are females.

Five thousand engineers are produced within the country each year while about 3,000 engineers completing their studies from abroad enter the workforce in the country annually.

The Council provides license in 52 various genres of engineering. Bachelor level program is taught in 17 various engineering fields in Nepal at present.