Review of the biomedical engineering education programs in Europe within the framework of TEMPUS IV, CRH-BME project

Abstract

Biomedical Engineers should be prepared to adapt to existing or forecasted needs. Today, education in Biomedical Engineering (BME) in Europe is mainly influenced by: a) the European policy on higher education, b) research & development (R&D) programs and c) the market demands. There is a strong pressure on education, training and life long learning programs to continuously adapt their objectives in order to face new requirements and challenges. The main objective of the TEMPUS IV, CRH-BME project is to update existing curricula in the field of BME in order to meet recent and future developments in the area, address new emerging interdisciplinary domains that appear as a result of the R&D progress and respond to the BME job market demands. The first step is to extensively review the curricula in the BME education field. The work is carried out through collection of information from the project partners by the means of questionnaires. The present study covered 46 countries in Europe and identified 40 countries with Biomedical Engineering programs. Approximately 150 Universities across Europe offer in total 297 BME programs, distributed as following: 77 Undergraduate programs offering BSc degree, and 220 Postgraduate programs, from which 161 offer MSc degree and 59 offer PhD degree. The results of this study reveal that Biomedical Engineering programs are experiencing rapid growth after the year 2000 and especially during the last five years. This leads to an increased number of Biomedical Engineers available today on the market and it is expected to play an important role in meeting the existing and forecasted needs in the BME field. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.