Professional Status
Engineers typically require a type of professional certification, such as satisfying certain education requirements and passing an examination to become a professional engineer. These certifications are usually nationally regulated and registered, but there are also cases where a self-governing body, such as the Canadian Association of Professional Engineers. In many cases, carrying the title of "Professional Engineer" is legally protected.
As BME is an emerging field, professional certifications are not as standard and uniform as they are for other engineering fields. For example, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam in the U.S. does not include a biomedical engineering section, though it does cover biology. Biomedical engineers often simply possess a university degree as their qualification. However, some countries do regulate biomedical engineers, such as Australia, however registration is typically recommended, but not always a requirement.
As with many engineering fields, a bachelor's degree is usually the minimum and often most common degree for a profession in BME, though it is not uncommon for the bachelor's degree to serve as a launching pad into graduate studies. ABET does accredit undergraduate programs in the field. However, even this is not a strict requirement since it is an emerging field and due to the young age of many programs.
See also: Professional engineerRead more about this topic: Bachelor Of Science In Biomedical Engineering
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or status:
“Men seem more bound to the wheel of success than women do. That women are trained to get satisfaction from affiliation rather than achievement has tended to keep them from great achievement. But it has also freed them from unreasonable expectations about the satisfactions that professional achievement brings.”
—Phyllis Rose (b. 1942)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)