By Claire Anderson.

A group of UCC students have had their MEng accreditation revoked as the university had not replaced a lecturer after seven years.

On October 5 the students of UCC Chemical Engineering were told that their MEng accreditation with the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) was revoked.

IChemE's decision was due to the fact that UCC had not replaced a professor that had left the university in 2008.

IChemE saw that the discipline was weakened and decided to downgrade the degree status.

“There is still no professorial appointment in the Department and there have been no other staffing increases since the last accreditation visit,” said IChemE.

The current students of this course will receive a degree accredited to BEng, while the graduates of previous years received a degree accredited to MEng with IChemE.

The students affected by this issue have created a petition on change.org, where many have stated their reasons for signing.

One signatory made the following comment: "If there was any concern given to students by the college, or indeed the president himself, there would have been communication regarding the matter so we, as a student body, could have helped in the process. Many of us chose this course over other colleges because of the accreditation offered."

You can find this petition at change.org