Involving the students: outcomes and experiences from the participation of the board of European students of technology in the thematic network E4

Abstract

In order to keep on developing the European dimension of engineering education, the European Commission decided to launch the thematic network Enhancing Engineering Education in Europe (E4) to continue the work done in the previous thematic network, Higher European Engineering Education (H3E). As in H3E, the input of students was considered to be important and valuable, and thus needed also in this new thematic network. As contacts had already been made with the Board of European Students of Technology (BEST) that had participated in H3E, and the cooperation had proved to be fruitful and reliable, BEST was chosen as the channel to get student presence inside the Thematic Network. It is an understatement to say that students as a whole are an important stakeholder in education, since it is in fact the students that are the actual recipients of education. After all, what would be the point of education without students? The question seems absurd, yet it is very often the case that students are not even consulted when changes are considered and implemented. That students should take part in the shaping of education needs to be recognized as something as self-evident as students taking part in education itself. The views of the students can indeed in several cases be more original and innovative than those of professors or other academics, and of course take better into account the students' own needs. Professors and academics have, or at least should have, more knowledge and experience than students, but at the same time we must all realize that the environment around us changes, sometimes very fast, and what was good at one time sometimes does not work anymore. Students are young and still fresh with ideas, without yet having been fixed into a particular way of thinking, thus being able to come up with new ideas for improvement, in this case for engineering education. Thus it is not only natural that students should be involved in educational changes because of their position as its recipients, but also because they constitute a source of innovation and freshness in its own right, something that should not be overlooked. The participation of students in the thematic network E4, via BEST, has allowed engineering students from around Europe to participate in the development of engineering education and their views to be made public to those who decide on how they are educated.