Impact of European projects on engineering education

Abstract

Various European programmes represent invaluable help and source of experience for universities in Central and Eastern Europe. Being an emerging university that was established just 8 years ago, we welcomed the chance to be involved in numerous projects that introduced us to the area of European cooperation. Last summer two very interesting projects concerning our university were finished (in terms of financing from the sources mentioned above) and so it is a good occasion to evaluate the progress of our international co-operation in the last 3 years and to look forward towards further development of our established links. The first project was financed by The British Know How Fund and its aim was to bring together the University of Hull, UK, and the Faculty of Informatics and Management UHK in Hradec KrÁlové (FIM). The second project, called INSYPA, was a Joint European Project within the frame of the TransEuropean Mobility Programme for University Studies (Tempus). Both projects were extremely fruitful for us but so different one from another that we think it might be interesting to compare them. The contribution describes our original plans, their development, evolution of our partnership, the problems which arose and were solved. The main stress is given to expertise obtained, methods of assessment, persistent links and their influence on our integration to EU educational and research programmes.