Carleton’s Master of Engineering Practice Program: A Bold Step for International Engineers
During Carleton’s June 2025 convocation ceremony, sixty three engineering professionals marked the first graduation of the recently minted Master of Engineering Practice (EP) program. This new program was designed to build on international undergraduate degrees and prepare students with skills directly relevant to Canadian professional engineering settings.
“The program bridges the gap between academic skills and industry demand in the Canadian engineering market,” said Prashant Waghmare, director of the EP program. “It is designed to offer international engineering students a pathway to integrate into their engineering careers faster.”
Bridging Academic Training and Industry Needs
Larry Kostiuk, dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design, established the program to help address growing need for engineers. “Canada requires more engineers than our universities can produce, leading to a reliance on talent from abroad. Yet, there are hurdles in integrating engineers from different countries, especially regarding our northern climate,” said Kostiuk. “To address this, we established a program for engineers from Washington Accord countries. These are nations whose engineering education is recognized as equivalent to ours. Then our program, known as Master of Engineering-Engineering Practice, validates their qualifications through a mix of [engineering] and career-ready skill courses, ensuring a smooth transition to the Canadian engineering landscape.”
The June celebration filled the Engineering Design Centre’s Atrium while several graduates reminisced on where they had come from and considered where they were headed.
“We arrived as individuals, but through shared struggles and times, we have become a community,” said Perseverance Jana, a graduate from Zimbabwe in the civil engineering stream. “We came from different places with different dreams, but we were united by a shared purpose.”
Ronald Miller, the incoming interim Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Design, also offered his congratulations to the cohort.
“It’s really important to take a minute to reflect on these moments and mark them as a significant achievement in your life,” he said. “The best engineers are the ones that make bold decisions. Not to take risks but to take bold decisions based on good data.
“You have shown already by coming here, by taking this chance on our program, that you are bold, and you’ll be bold as engineers.”
Stories of Courage, Community and Career Transformation
One such engineer is Likhita Sai Matta, from Visakhapatnam, India who completed her bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering at Andhra University.
“I’ve always been deeply curious about how things work, and in my family, engineering was seen as a strong and respected career path,” she said. “For me, success wasn’t about big titles or fancy paychecks, it was about creating a life where I can support the people I love and grow mentally, emotionally and financially too.”
She chose the Master of Engineering in Engineering Practice program because it was focused on industry relevance, project-based work and real-world problem-solving. But her desire to travel outside of India for her education was met with doubt. People asked her parents, who were already worried, “why invest so much in a girl’s education? Save it for her wedding.”
Likhita Sai’s uncle—who was already a major influence in her choice to become an engineer—always encouraged her to push beyond her limits. He helped her convince her parents that moving to Ottawa, Canada for school was just part of her plan.
“Carleton stood out for its strong commitment to innovation and its welcoming environment for international students,” said Likhita Sai. “And the chance to be part of the first-ever cohort of this program? That felt both exciting and meaningful.”
The program launched in 2023 and its inaugural, June 2025 cohort graduated a total of sixty three students in the program’s five streams: mechanical, electrical, environmental, civil and software engineering. Students can choose their own education pathway by enrolling in the fall, winter or summer term. They can even choose to take the “accelerated” pathway in just three terms, which means they can complete their graduate degree in as little as twelve to eighteen months.
“Feedback from students has been crucial for the program’s evolution,” said Waghmare. The program is only in its second year and it aims to evolve with the needs of the students, offering a flexible and adaptable curriculum that always provides industry insights and internship opportunities.
An Engineering Program Built for Flexibility and Relevance
Carleton’s EP program offers core engineering courses and includes professional development courses in communication, project management and research methods. There are courses in ethics and professionalism and a flexibility for students to focus on specific areas like data analytics, government policies and decision making, climate change and even entrepreneurship—to support students who want to start their own companies.
Starting in summer 2026, the Engineering Practice program will launch its practicum pathway—a four-to-eight-month work placement in students’ engineering field, for which they can earn academic credit. The experience will help students enhance career-ready and engineering skills while expanding their professional networks in Canada.
Likhita Sai said she gained so much from the program: new tools, new frameworks and new ways to think like an engineer. The biggest challenges were shifting from electronics to software engineering and acclimatizing to Canadian winters, whose beauty she came to enjoy.
“I also had to adapt to a new country, culture and education system,” she said. “Luckily, Ottawa is a calm and beautiful city, filled with walking trails, vibrant multicultural communities and some of the friendliest people I’ve met.”
Advice for Future Students
EP program graduate Arafat Shaikh, originally from Mumbai, India, enjoyed living and studying in Ottawa, which was ranked #5 on the Global Work-Life Balance City Index for 2025.
As the nation’s capital, Ottawa is home to a large number of federal laboratories and offices. Carleton University leverages the capital city’s resources and industry connections. It also provides access to Canada’s largest technology hub in North America: Kanata North, where over 500 high-tech companies offer many internship, co-op and employment opportunities.
“I would live here all my life if I could,” he said. “The people here are calm, they are polite. They include everybody, they accept anybody—this is what I like most of all. And who doesn’t want to live in a capital city?”
Arafat was drawn to engineering by a fascination with machines and production. He had desire to create something beneficial for humanity, which ultimately led him to the EP program’s mechanical stream.
“Through the EP program, I gained advanced industrial skills from experienced and knowledgeable professors,” he said. “I feel like I was converted from a student to an actual engineer.”
Likhita Sai said she will continue to grow as a software engineer by deepening her engineering skills and gaining more hands-on experience. At the same time, she wants to give back by mentoring and supporting other international students and newcomers, helping them navigate challenges that she faced.
“If somebody wants to join Carleton, I would say go for it,” she said. “Don’t overthink it. It will be hard. You will miss your home. You will doubt yourself, but in the end, it will all be worth it.”
On stage at the June celebration, she congratulated her fellow graduates and thanked the staff and faculty of the EP program for providing them with the opportunities for personal growth.
“Personally, I learned independence, resilience and how to grow outside my comfort zone,” she said. “I came here unsure if I could even graduate, and I’m leaving with the confidence that I can tackle anything I put my mind to.”
Written by Joseph Mathieu. Photos by Melanie Mathieu.