A survey is made of some of the questions, comments and voiced doubts which have been raised by colleges, by lecturers and by students about the CEI Compulsory Subject: The Engineer in Society. In an attempt to provide answers to some of these, an examination is made of what the subject is attempting to do in both teaching and learning for the engineering profession. For the engineer's integrated accountability to be developed effectively, the young engineer should be put in a situation in which he can develop some introductory awareness of the complex interactions between resources, labour, finance, legislation, information and the needs and demands of society. The author attempts to explain how this worthy aim may be examined.