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Session 2560

INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN EUROPE

Ian R. SIMPSON ENST de Bretagne/France

1. INTRODUCTION.

In the November 1996 edition of ASEE's excellent Journal, "Prism," Russel C. JONES, Executive Director of the National Society of Professional Engineers in the USA, published an article entitled : " The World as Workplace." He concluded this article with the following paragraph :

" The era of international practice for engineers has clearly arrived, and each engineering education system must revise its programs to adequately prepare its graduates for work in the global marketplace. To do less would be to relegate the technical productivity of a country to less than competitive status in the international arena."

I wholeheartedly endorse the author's sentiments, for they represent a policy which, in Europe, we have been trying to implement for the past ten years, not without a good deal of pain and suffering. Maintaining a parochial attitude is the easy option : "We've done it like this for the past two hundred years, so why change?" If we don't change, then other people will rapidly overtake us and conquer markets in which we used to reign supreme. The innovations foreseen by Russel C. Jones include :

* Proficiency in Foreign Languages. * Cultural and Historical Awareness. * Sensitizing all members of Faculty to international aspects of an engineering education.

In a European context, the current fifteen Member States of the European Union (EU) are grappling with such problems as Economic and Monetary Union and a possible integrated political convergence. The former will mean a common currency. The days when you had to change your money when you traveled over a European border are drawing to a close. "Thank Goodness for that," shout the seasoned travelers. In 1999, the German Deutschmark, the French Franc and the British Pound could be replaced by the "Euro," whose value at the moment of writing is around 1.20 dollars. Political

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Simpson, I. R. (1997, June), International Aspects Of Engineering Education In Europe Paper presented at 1997 Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 10.18260/1-2--6648