Engineering skills education: the Bachelor of Engineering programme of the ‘Vrije Universiteit Brussel’ as a case study

Abstract

The Bologna process has triggered an important change in the course outline towards a sustainable, transparent and quality- driven European education system. In Belgium, engineering education had to be completely revised. The transformation of the former system, leading to the degree of academic engineer after five years of study, into the typical Bologna 3+2 structure leading to the academic degrees of Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering, respectively, has created opportunities to completely reconsider and restructure the engineering education at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. One of the main objectives of the new programme was to explicitly meet all the requirements with respect to the education output contained in the ‘Dublin descriptors’ and that of present-day society at large. In this paper, we report on our experience in this transformation. To this end, we use the outcomes of the consultation with alumni, our self-assessments and assessments by an international panel appointed by the VLIR–VLOA (Flemish–Dutch inspection commissions) that took place in 2004 and 2007.

Keywords:

• institutional and organisational change
• new learning methods
• curriculum development
• creativity
• new engineering competencies

Notes

http://www.ulb.ac.be/unica.

https://www.time-association.org/aboutTIME/.

The federalisation of Belgium accounts four reforms of the state: the first reform of 1970, the second reform of 1980, the third reform of 1988–89 and the latest one of 1993. The reform of 1988–89 transferred the authority for education entirely towards the communities. Hence, for the VUB, the Flemish community is qualified for the organisation of education.

French Decree of 11 March 1794 on the set-up of a new central school for public works: ‘Le décret du 21ventôse an II sur la mission d'organiser une nouvelle École centrale des travaux publics’.

French law of 1 September 1795 on founding of the Polytechnic School: ‘Loi du 15 fructidor an III sur l’École Polytechnique’.

www.ulb.ac.be.

‘Free’ should be interpreted in two ways:

•	Unbounded, i.e. independent from government regarding nomination of staff, management, etc., but regulated for the set-up of the education; i.e. for the curricula, the quality and end terms of the programmes.
•	Independent from any religion and influence of any kind of organised and structured church; i.e. in the spirit of free thinking, as declared by the founder Theodore Verhaegen in 1834.

Civil Engineer, as a degree and title, should not be confused with ‘construction engineer’, but civil is opposed to the already existing polytechnic degree offered by the Royal Military Academy.

Joint Quality Initiative informal group. Shared ‘Dublin’ descriptors for short cycle, first Cycle, second cycle and third cycle awards. Available from: www.jointquality.org. [Accessed 18 October 2004].

Frijhoff, W. Verbreding in de bachelorfase: zin of onzin?, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, lecture given during the VU education day of 21 March 2001.

Homepage of the faculty of Engineering of the VUB. http://www.vub.ac.be/IR/english/.

Flemish decree of 4 April 2003 on the restructuring of the higher education, published in the Moniteur Belge on 14 July 2003: Vlaams decreet van 4 april 2003 betreffende de herstructurering van het hoger onderwijs, Belgisch Staatsblad 14 juli 2003.

Socrates II Thematic European Network E4, Enhancing European engineering education. Available from: www.unifi.it/tne4/.

Thematic European Network TREE. Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe. Available from: www3.unifi.it/tree.

Final volume of Thematic European Network TREE, Chapter 5.2, Augusti, G. The EUR-ACE quality label: a European system for accreditation of EE, 75–80. Available from: http://www3.unifi.it/tree/index.php?l=x&s=13.

Bachelor of Engineering programme of the VUB. www.vub.ac.be/english/infoabout/education/bama/ofingwet.html.

The faculty education board are: ORBA (council board general Bachelor of Engineering programmes), ORBB (council for Civil Engineering education), ORCM (council for Chemistry and Material Science Education), ORE (council for Electrical Engineering Education), ORWE (council for Electromechanical Engineering education) and the faculty education commission FOWC.