SOE card for engineers

The news item, 'Live-in facilities could attract int'l students to Dubai universities' (KT, October 5) said free zones and universities across Dubai are being urged to provide accommodation for students, to help push forward its bid to attract more undergraduates to the city. I welcome this, but the engineers/architects who have passed out from the UAE are not getting the Society of Engineers Card which is mandatory for them to get a job. These cards are invariably granted to engineers in other countries. The subject had been broached up on earlier in Khaleej Times in these columns, but there has been no response from the authorities. I, on behalf of engineers who have passed out from UAE campuses, request that graduates from the UAE also be given the SOE membership card so that they are on an equal footing with their counterparts. Because of this, expatriate parents are now forced to send their children to other countries for higher studies

S Rafi Ahmed, by e-mail