Masters or Work Experience - on my way to MIStructE

I am currently half way through an MSc in civil engineering. I have been doing the degree Part time, while working for a structural engineering firm.

I have recently found out that you no longer need an MSc (or MEng) to become a chartered member of the IStructE.

Because of this, my employer has offered me the opportunity to leave my course now, and get a significant pay rise. (From £26k, to £40k).

My dimella...

If I leave the course now, I may regret not getting a masters qualification. I am also in the position where my employer is paying my tuition fees, so I may never get the chance again.

However, the course is not all that relevant to the work I am doing. In fact, this second year in particular will not be very useful for my job.

Furthermore, if I go full time at work now, I will be a year closer to becoming chartered. Also, I will be able to gain much more experience and work on much larger projects if on a full tike schedule (whereas this was difficult when only working 3 days).

On the other side, I enjoy having the uni days as its slightly more relaxing, albeit extremely difficult. - First lectures arent until 11am , so I also get a slight lie in!!

I am not looking to move jobs or go abroad anytime in the next, say, 5-10 years - by which time I should be chartered. So, the MSc may not be all that relevant anyway.

Apart from friends and colleagues, I have struggled to find input from anyone else in similar positions or those in senior engineering positions with views on BEng vs MSc vs CEng etc.

Any input would be great, as I am finding this decision rather difficult to make!

I have recently found out that you no longer need an MSc (or MEng) to become a chartered member of the IStructE.

That's not what it says here:

https://www.istructe.org/membership/types-of-membership/chartered-member/academic-requirements-for-chartered-membership
"Candidates wishing to apply for Chartered Membership should hold an Institution accredited MEng degree (normally 4 years full time or the equivalent). Those holding a BEng (Hons) degree can also apply, but a period of Further Learning must also be demonstrated e.g. through an accredited MSc degree, via the Institution’s Technical Report Route or completion of the Institution's Chartered Membership Examination."

He's right....this is a new development by the IStructE (someone working in the industry also told me about this) and IMechE are apparently considering something similar although unlikely for IMechE.

Edit: Found the link, here it is:

https://www.istructe.org/news-articles/2016/institution-news/the-institution-of-structural-engineers-transform

Edit 2: This is SO good....I wish IMechE would do this as well. Then again we don't have rigorous exams of professional competence like structural engineers do..so I don't think they will do this for mechanical engineers

@Smack did you know this?

Interesting, but you still have to do an exam. Which you would need to study for.

I'd have thought if you are already in a degree programme you would be best to continue.

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He's right....this is a new development by the IStructE (someone working in the industry also told me about this) and IMechE are apparently considering something similar although unlikely for IMechE.

Edit: Found the link, here it is:

https://www.istructe.org/news-articles/2016/institution-news/the-institution-of-structural-engineers-transform

Edit 2: This is SO good....I wish IMechE would do this as well. Then again we don't have rigorous exams of professional competence like structural engineers do..so I don't think they will do this for mechanical engineers

@Smack did you know this?

Wasn't aware of that until now, thanks for the heads up.
The IMechE told me as much when I was at one of their get chartered events recently. I believe this comes top down from the ECUK, and page 30 of the UK-SPEC also clearly demonstrates the viability of routes other than just formal education.

Formal academic study will probably still be necessary for many, though, as not everyone has jobs that allow them to demonstrate masters level knowledge.

No prob

Thanks for the link, it was a good read. How do you know about the events by the way? Do IMechE send emails about them?

Go to IMechE Near You:

http://nearyou.imeche.org/

Select your region, and there will hopefully be events nearby. You should be able to narrow down to your local area - e.g. if I select the Scottish region, I can select various "areas", like Aberdeen, Glasgow and the like.

IMechE also send emails, but you may have your settings set such that emails are turned off, or they may go to your spam, or you may not be signed up for them etc.