17 Year Evolution Of The Students' Perspective On Innovative Teaching, Curricular Development And E-Learning In Europe

After the year 2000, the world changed rapidly with the prevalence of internet, and globalization. This has changed the criteria and the expectations that companies have from their employees. Countries across Europe are undergoing curricula reforms towards more competence based approaches, emphasizing the importance of creativity, innovation and a learner-centered education. But how has European Engineering Education (EEE) developed in the last two decades? Board of European Students of Technology ( BEST) has been, since 1998, gathering and transmitting technology students' opinions on educational matters to interested entities. To provide insights on the general EEE development through the last two decades, BEST presents now a 17-year evolution of the students' opinions on three main educational topics: innovative teaching, curricular development and e-learning. Gathered opinions indicate that the EEE has adapted to socio-technological influences towards constant curriculum development. The internet together with other technology advances lead to new ways of learning, such as e-learning and virtual mobility, which in turn lead to an enhanced communication and sharing, emphasizing the social skills of an engineer. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement. There is still the need to step forward, out of the entrepreneur hubs of innovation, to a global academia scale. The development of EEE will surely be as successful as the company-university-student common and proactive involvement. Companies need to be involved in study programs and help bridging the gap between the knowledge gained in university years and the skills needed in the corporate world. And the modern student should be open-minded, innovative, and communicative in order to be able to contribute to the global market.