Education in engineering – challenges and contributions

Abstract

The paper presents a survey of possible solutions concerning the problems and challenges occurring nowadays in European higher engineering education. The objective of the investigation presented are the opportunities of developing in engineering students such extremely important competences as: creative abilities and skills for decision making through improving the quality of the study process. The main methods to achieve this goal are questionnaire survey conducted in various engineering Bachelor degree courses and tools for improving the communication between university management, faculty and students. The feedback received in this study is especially valuable concerning the students' opinion on the accessibility of the study material provided, the logical consistency between the topics, and the visual presentation of the knowledge. The authors have created a questionnaire based upon the experience from different European universities including University of Ruse, Bulgaria. The results obtained from this survey are compared and summarized. Conclusions have been made about the importance of students’ evaluation of the lectures, tutorials, exercises and academic staff presentations and the role of this evaluation process for the improvement of the quality of education.