The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) is a name awarded to graduates of engineering programs that develop their students' capabilities to work within a professional context. These programs focus on applied techniques in their respective engineering fields. Participation in a program that awards the abbreviation PDEng requires at least a Master's degree in a related field [1].
The main schools currently awarding this name are the Eindhoven University of Technology, Delft University of Technology, and University of Twente. Among these schools are interscholastic cooperation programs like the 3TU Federation and its Stan Ackermans Institute[2].
The PDEng is certified by the Dutch Certification Committee for Technological Design Programmes (CCTO or Dutch: Nederlandse Certificatiecommissie voor Opleidingen tot Technologisch Ontwerper), which represents the interests of the Dutch Employers' Collective (Dutch: Raad Centrale Ondernemingsorganisaties) and the Royal Institution of Engineers in the Netherlands (KIVI NIRIA or Dutch: Koninklijk Instituut Van Ingenieurs) [3]. The CCTO's main goal is to ensure that such degrees hold to the high standards established by both academia and industry. The committee reviews these degree programs every five years to ensure continued standards compliance [1]. Discussions have recently started in order to extend the recognition of Engineering Doctorate diploma across Europe [4].
The Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) name owes its existence to the adoption of the Bachelor/Master (Ba/Ma) degree system after the Bologna Process. While most Dutch universities adopted the Ba/Ma system in 2001, the PDEng was known as the official Master of Technical Design (MTD) degree until 2004. It was then that the Dutch Certification Committee for Technological Design Programmes finally ratified the new degree to separate it from the conventional Master's degree [3]. One university program awarding the PDEng is User System Interaction (USI) in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
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