I am Not sure about your country but in the USA a college degree is required to call yourself an engineer, just like one is required to call yourself a Medical Doctor. You have to be licensed as a "professional engineer" or an "engineer in training" by a national board where you take an exam, etc.

Unfortunately a lot of programmers (not our EE friend above) have bastardized the term and the state registration boards are not fully enforcing the legal use of the term. YES, it is illegal to offer "engineering services" if you are not a real engineer in most of not all states.

Programming is a wonderful career and you have to be bright to do it, but by your logic carpenters and cabinet makers and chefs are also engineers. I been known to pick a bad splinter out of myself once in a while so I am an MD. I have tinkered around in the backyard on a real nice shed, so I am a structural engineer too.

When I see a programmer with a P.E. license I will gladly call him and engineer. Until then he is a programmer.