The Bachelor of Engineering, abbreviated as B.A.I., B.E., or B.Eng., is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a student after four to five years of studying engineering at an accredited university. In the UK, a B.E. degree will be accredited by one of the Engineering Council's professional bodies as suitable for registration as a chartered engineer. In Canada the degree from a Canadian university can be accredited by the CEAB. Alternatively, it might be accredited directly by another professional body, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The B.E. is mainly a route to chartered engineer, registered engineer or licensed engineer, and has been approved by representatives of the profession.
A B.E. has a greater emphasis on technical engineering aspects, for example, electronics and electrical circuits, than the B.Sc. However, topics covered in B.E. can overlap with B.Sc.
Most universities in the United States and Europe award the Bachelor of Science Engineering (B.Sc.Eng.), Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), Bachelor of Engineering Science (B.Eng.Sc.), Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.), or Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.) degree to undergraduate students of engineering study. For example, Canada is the only country that awards the B.A.Sc. degree for graduating engineers. Other institutions award engineering degrees specific to the area of study, such as B.S.E.E. (Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering) and BSME (Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering).
A less common, and possibly the oldest variety of the degree in the English-speaking world, is Baccalaureus in Arte Ingeniaria (B.A.I.), a Latin name meaning Bachelor in the Art of Engineering. Here Baccalaureus in Arte Ingeniaria implies an excellence in carrying out the 'art' or 'function' of an engineer. The degree is awarded by the University of Dublin, Ireland (which has had a School of Engineering since 1841), and also by the constituent universities of the National University of Ireland (N.U.I.), but in everyday speech it is more commonly referred to as Bachelor of Engineering, and the N.U.I. graduates also use the post-nomials translated into English, B.E., even though the actual degree and its parchment is in Latin. Some South African Universities refer to their Engineering degrees as B.Ing. (Baccalaureus Ingenieurswese - Afrikaans).