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Two years after taking on the IHE presidency, Katharine Kelly reflects on a period of great change for the organisation

Cast your mind back to June 2024; a general election was looming, Taylor Swift mania had taken over the country and the Euros were in full swing in Germany. I collected my husband from Glasgow airport: ‘fresh’ off a Tartan Army flight from Cologne, and with no time to dry clean his kilt, we headed north for Stirling.

On a typically Scottish (read rainy) Friday evening in June, we marched up the hill to Stirling Castle for the IHE’s presidential dinner, and my long-time mentor, IHE ‘ride-or-die’ Martin Polland, handed over the Presidential Chain of Office to me. It remains one of my favourite nights, filled with warmth and the company of the people who make both my day job and IHE work so rewarding.

All change

Thrown in at the deep end, one of my first tasks as president was to recruit a new CEO for the institute, following the retirement of Steve Spender. His dedication over more than 30 years — both as CEO and as a member/president — left an incredible legacy and I was acutely aware that finding someone to succeed him would be a challenge.

In December 2024, the IHE welcomed Lyle Andrew as its new CEO, and suffice to say, his appointment has been a great success. I’ve really enjoyed building a working relationship with him and feel very lucky for the opportunity to collaborate on many IHE initiatives.

The theme of my presidency has been the three Rs – Recruitment and Retention, Resilience and (Professional) Registration – and I’ve worked with the formidable presidential team (Mr Polland, Darren Capes and Rebecca Bollen) to weave these aspirations into some of the objectives we’ve set for Mr Andrew.

A bursary scheme for our members

One of my proudest achievements during my tenure has been establishing a bursary scheme to assist our members. I wanted to reward loyalty by helping members develop new and existing skills, enabling them to offer even more to their employers and the wider industry.

Jade Frith, a bursary recipient, said: ‘As a neurodivergent person, this bursary will allow me to fund training and resources that suit my individual needs… I look forward to bringing more skills and knowledge to my team’.

It’s great to see the benefits of these bursaries will be felt by a whole team within the wider sector.

We launched the scheme in 2025 to mark the IHE’s 60th anniversary, and I’m pleased to confirm that earlier this year the IHE council approved plans to repeat the bursary programme for summer 2026. This year we’re introducing an additional category specifically for academics. We want to support those in academia achieve professional registration – something that will become increasingly important as JBM guidelines require 50% of staff delivering accredited degree courses to be so.

Resilience and governance

Our last Engineering Council licence review in 2022 recommended modernising the IHE’s governance, including the structure of our Memorandum and Articles of Association (M&As).

On 21 May this year, IHE members voted in favour on the proposed new M&As, which will see some significant changes to the way our institute is run. The changes are aimed at ensuring the IHE is fit for purpose, adaptable for the future and suitably governed by its members in accordance with current legislation. One of the main changes will allow more members to become involved in specific topic groups or committees.

We’re hoping that this will encourage greater engagement, broadening of member networks and ultimately offer a more attractive platform for new and existing members.

In addition to these governance changes, Mr Andrew has:

• Brought structure to our staff team, organising them into clearly defined roles and adding new responsibilities.
• Recruited new people to help build the team – Heather Suarez as membership and professional registrations manager, Katie Sawyer as finance and admin officer and Leila Atherton as PRIMS administrator.
• Introduced a new digital offer through our online platform for professional registration, with EngTech applications going live in early 2026. Our digital media and admin manager, Cheryl Brown, has worked tirelessly with IT to launch PRIMS, which will be available to IEng and CEng candidates later this year
• Championed sustainability — our recent office move allowed us to go fully paperless, removing the need for hard copy applications and storage.

Modernising our processes

Professional registration is our raison d’etre and part of being in the presidential team involves a stint chairing our Membership & Qualifications panel. I’ve found my work here to be the most interesting and rewarding part of volunteering with the IHE and the place where I continue to learn and develop my own skills, whilst hopefully bringing out the best in those I mentor and review. As a professional reviewer, I joined the Academic Standards Panel and have enjoyed working with junior VP and current M&Q chair Rebecca Bollen, Ms Suarez and HonFIHE Peter Dipper to understand the process.

We want a route to professional registration for everyone with the right skillset. Increasingly, we’re seeing members with less traditional backgrounds—candidates with decades of on-the-job experience, HNC/HND qualifications, or degrees in geography or computer science. We’re working closely with the Engineering Council to support their 2026 Standards Review, and have recently updated our own guidance for the Experiential Learning route to CEng. We’re also streamlining our processes for career assessments to support the growing number of Individual route applications. By supporting as many members as possible with their professional registration, we’re building a stronger, more resilient workforce for our industry.

Expanding our reach

In November 2025, the IHE made its first international visit to Cairo, generously hosted by Coventry University @ The Knowledge Hub (TKH). Mr Andrew, June 2026 Dr Shervin Motamedi (vice chair of our Academic Standards Panel) and I were delighted to meet students and staff, along with government ministers and members of the department’s Industry Advisory Board. The president of TKH signed an MoU with us, demonstrating our shared commitment to the promotion of the IHE and professional development more generally. We were also the first professional transportation engineering body to meet with Egypt’s Engineering Syndicate (the equivalent of our Engineering Council), where we discussed knowledge sharing and CPD opportunities.

Following a successful pilot scheme in 2025, which saw 13 employees in WSP’s Bangalore office submit their EngTech & IEng applications, Mr Polland and Ms Suarez travelled to Bangalore in May 2026 to meet IHE members from AECOM, Arcadis, Atkins, Jacobs and WSP to assist with their professional registration and development.

As UK companies upskill their designers abroad, the IHE is keen to promote our routes to membership and registration with potential international members and raise our profile across the Indian region. Special thanks go to IHE member Vinay Kushalappa, CEng, FIHE, for his help in facilitating this visit and accompanying Ms Suarez and Mr Polland during their stay.

What next?

Although I am stepping down as president in July, I will not be walking away from some of the projects I’ve been working on. Following our members’ survey at the end of 2025, there are key actions around training and branch engagement that I’m keen to continue working on with Mr Andrew and the new presidential team.

We are still hoping to complete a review of our training offering and will be looking for members to contribute to this later in the year. Longer term, I think there’s a big part to play in the re-organisation of End Point Assessments for apprenticeships. This is hugely important and all relevant institutions will need to contribute.

The work undertaken by our branches is fundamental for our members and forms the basis of our connections to the wider engineering community. I’m hoping that the re-invigorated M&As and company restructure will enable far greater branch engagement and collaboration.

I feel so lucky to have been able to carry out this role and wish Darren Capes all the very best when he takes over. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about becoming more involved in the IHE to say ‘yes’ to any opportunities that arise. The current updates and refresh mean that there will soon be opportunities to represent the IHE at board and committee level and we’re looking for willing and enthusiastic volunteers who can commit to helping our small but mighty institute continue to thrive.

Doing this role has been the best CPD ever – I have learnt so much on a huge variety of topics and I’d like to say a huge thank you to the IHE for electing me. It’s been an absolute privilege, a whirlwind at times, a massive learning experience and now proudly listed as the best thing on my CV!

It has also been great to share knowledge and experience through speaker slots at events like Traffex and Road Expo, where I talked with the minister about the issues facing our industry. These events have provided fantastic networking opportunities for me personally, as well as the chance to promote the IHE at headline industry events.

And now, as I look forward to our Presidential Dinner next month, a strange feeling of déjà vu sets in… Scotland has somehow qualified for another football tournament!