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"Engineering education" appeared for the first time as a conceptual and institutional project around the middle of the 18th Century when some institutions like the "Ecole Royale des Ponts et Chaussées" were founded in France (1747). New and original institutions were progressiveley created and developed in order to meet the needs of European societies for better trained people able to manage the construction of new infrastructures and to contribute to the development of the just growing industry. More than two centuries after, engineering education is largely, worldwidely, recognized as one of the most important sector of higher education, with a huge diversification of educational programmes and institutions.

Nevertheless, engineering education seems today to be questioned or discussed in many countries. Does engineering education really meet the needs of modern societies? Do engineering faculties or schools really educate and train the engineers able to professionally work within more and more complex worlds and contexts? Are they not too much traditional, unable to develop new approaches for the education, the training and the professional and personal develoment of the future engineers?

One important point, today, lies in the necessity and the difficulty to find acceptable and efficient compromises between more and more intricates factors such as education, training, specialized information, methodoly, competitiveness, culture and technology. Are we able to design, build, maintain and control appropriate modern processes for the transfer of information, knowledge and know-how? Are we really preparing young generations of engineers able to move and to act professionally within various geographical, cultural and trans-disciplinary situations? Are we really educating and training not only efficient individuals but also competitive interdisciplinay teams? Are we ready to encourage new educational projects based on a very contemporary use of modern information technology and methodology (such as total quality management). Do we have a clear and responsible vision of what should be the future developments of engineering education?

The present communication will emphasis some aspects of the recents developments of engineering education, in France and in Europe.

1 - EUROPEAN ENGINEERING EDUCATION : DIFFERENT MODELS

1-1. The historical and cultural European diversity

In UK, and generally speaking in the countries influenced by the British tradition, the engineer is often considered or perceived as a "super-technician", able to design, create, build technical objects or manage technical or technological processes. Priority is given to technical and technological knowledges and to the transfer of specialized know-how. Testimonies of the utilitarian approach of engineering education can be observed in the curriculum but also in the reduced lenghth and the narrow specificity of the educational and training process. The professional engineering institutions played and still continue to play an important role: they accredit educational programmes, evaluate engineering faculties, certify professional competencies ("chartered engineers"), publish a lot of specialized books and journals and help in the transfer of knowledge and know-how. But historically, the formal education of engineers within technical universities appeared very late and around hundred years after the first continental European experiences. It means that the education and training of engineers is mainly considered as a true professional responsibility and that academia plays only a secondary role. The Finniston report, published in the early 80's in UK, demonstrated clearly this trend, showed the limits of a too narrow educational process and advocated for another approach. Under these circumstances, the image of the engineer is poor and salaries are very low, compared with continental situations. Due to this bad image of the engineer, it is difficult, for technical universities and engineering schools, to attract good students.

In Germany, as well as in many East European and Nordic countries, engineering education is a process really influenced by research activities. Traditionally, and according to Wilhelm Von Humbolt' ideas, research activities should be encouraged and universities should strongly contribute to science developement. Science should be autonoumus and not influenced by political or industrial forces. Under these conditions, the engineer should be exposed to scientific ideas, should be skilled for taking part to research activities. In other words, he or she must be highly specialized in some disciplinary fields. Thus, technical universities play an important role in the scientific world and professors are socially recognized in the German society as "scientific VIPs". Engineering education is provided by technical university to students who can spend 7 to 8 years (or more) for getting their final professional degree. Technical universities are also active in the the field of scientific and technical information and documentation and links with high-tech companies are often developed.

At the beginning of the 70's, in Germany (but also in many other countries), it was decided to diversify the higher education schemes and to develop the so-called the "Fach-Hochschulen". FH are specialized colleges which provide education and training in many fields, especially in the field of engineering. The idea was to prepare new generations of technological engineers, production engineers. The duration of the studies is only 3 years and a half, including training periods in industry. This educational scheme is very successful: two thirds of the graduate German engineers graduate from Fach-hochschulen. The competition between traditional universities and new FH is now very active but helps industry to find the appropriate engineers.

The French tradition is completely different, but can be observed also in some Mediterranean, Latin-American and African countries. According to the French culture, the engineer is primarly someone who can supply a global answer to social or human needs. He or she plays an important role in the society (generally placed at the top of the socio-professional hierarchy). He or she assembles technics, resources and means in order to appropriately solve the given problem. He or she is more a manager than a technician. Engineering education is mainly a general and multidisciplinary education, with emphasis put on theoretical subjects, methodological knowledges. The engineer is much more a "social being", a social function in the enterprises than a specialized and very narrow technician. To enter engineering education is a very competitive and selective process; entrance examinations to "Grandes Ecoles" are considered in France as the most important event in the life of an engineer. During 5 to 6 years, the future engineer is exposed to very stimulating socio-cognitive influences, but is also taking part to may projects developed by industry. On the contrary to Germany, the French engineer is not so much oriented towards research.

1-2. The diversified types of engineers

Questioning engineering education, its present and its future, we have to take into account the fact that there are many ways to consider what is an engineer. We are much more aware now, especially in Europe (due to the move towards a European single market), that it is impossible to consider a unique, universal engineer, a unique model. We cannot continue to think the management of the educational process with simple ideas, such as we did it during the 60's and the 70's. There is now a large, worldwide market for engineering activities as well as for engineering competencies; industry needs are more and more diversified and can be solved through multiple solutions.

Thus, when recruiting an engineer, a company can choose between different types of engineers:

- a generalist engineer (oriented towards the management of scientif, technical and economical resources) or a more specialized expert (skilled either in high scientific domains or in concrete technological solutions);

- an engineer with scientific, technological or managerial background;

- an engineer with a very disciplinary oriented education or someone with a multi-disciplinary or even more trans-disciplinary oriented mind;

- a fresh or young engineer or a more experienced one;

- someone with a classical first education or a professional with a non-traditional training (through continuing education and training, for instance).

Talking about the future of engineering education, one should now consider this diversity as a fundamental component or factor and one should try to establish processes and institutions which allow such a diversification of aims and of routes. Considering the unavoidable internationalization of business and engineering activities, it is also important to better understand such a diversified and multiple approach for engineering education. At last, when talking about evaluation, certification and accreditation, one has also to avoid a pure theoretical and doctrinal approach which could reflect a poor vision of a unique model for engineering education.

2 - THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

2-1. Diversification of access conditions to higher education

In many countries, one observed a general tendency which consisted in providing more and more access possibilities to higher education for young people. It is now easy for any good pupil to find a way to University or to any other higher educational institution. Many Universities increased the number of admitted students and in some of them, the free access to higher education implicated new problems in terms of management of the class-room activities. Other possibilities were offered through the diversification of the recruitment routes and through the creation of new institutions. In other words, mass education, diversified education, worldwide education and multi-dimensional education are now key-words that cannot be ignored. A new global management of such diversified access conditions and educational routes should be set-up and developed.

2-2. New diversified and appropriate educational programmes

An important trend, that appeared in the beginning of the 70's is the creation and the development of new engineering courses or programmes more oriented towards the industrial production and towards the education and training of engineers more technologically oriented. With the Polytechnics in Great Britain, with the German Fach-hochschulen or also with the French Instituts Universitaires de Technologie (IUT) that all appeared about 1965-1970, a new approach of engineering education was proposed in complement of the traditional way of educating engineers at traditional universities. Recently in France too, the Government decided to set-up a new scheme for engineering education (NFI - Nouvelles Formations d'Ingénieurs) with such a more "production-oriented" approach. Thus, we have to considered now a more complex system of engineering education, based on a functional diversification and including two main possibilities: long or higher education oriented towards design, research and/or management on the one hand, shorter and production oriented education on the other hand.

2-3. Postgraduate education: way to specialization

Another trend seemed to progressively appear during the 20 last years, which consisted in the development of a lot of post-graduate complementary courses for engineers. The basic concept behind this evolution refers to the search of a double qualification of the engineer: a first or initial education consisting in a classical Degree or Diplom of Engineer, followed by a short, specialized and complementary course which allows a kind of adaptation to the first job. Such post-graduate or specialized courses are now largely offered on the international formation market. They certainly will facilitate the professional mobility of engineers, disciplinary mobility as well as geographical mobility.

2-4. Research and innovation perspectives

During the last period, one also observed an impressive developpement of research activities within technical universities and engineering schools. This evolution is very important for the post-industrial society and for the emerging new technologies. The impregnation of engineering education by research becomes more and more a political objective. New channels or routes for engineering education are proposed which include basic research activities ("formation through research").This trend is more active in classical technical universities and engineering schools. But specialized colleges (such as Fach-Hochschulen) begin to develop attractive R&D programmes. The development of "spin-off" companies besides technical universities, especially at regional level, is also a good testimony of this trend. Nevertheless, there is no obvious testimony of the impact of such a research development on the engineering education improvment.

2-5. Continuing engineering education and life-long education

Continuing education was a concern that emerged at the end of the 70's - even if, historically speaking, original approaches were also developped during the 19th Century in Europe - . Engineering schools and faculties, as well as the Engineer's Associations today propose a lot of continuing education modules, courses or programmes to practising engineers. Some of these courses allow individuals to get a true Engineer Diplom or Degree. This route is also very important for technicians who want to become engineers. In other words, continuing engineering education is certainly becoming a key-factor of the competitiveness of our post-industrial societies.

2-6. A new international awareness

One could also mention for the 15 or 20 last years a radical transformation of the context of engineering education. The international overture (and especially the intra-European cooperation) becomes the main key-word for higher education development, especially for engineering education. This means a strong emphasis put on foreign languages learning, on students and staff exchanges, on mutual recognition of diplomas and degrees and on joint courses of joint curriculum. The transferability of credits within European higher education networks (ECTS system for instance) as well as the delivery of "double" diplomas or degrees are testimonies of this trend. International exchanges are also developed thanks to many regional institutions devoted to engineering education (SEFI for instance). International conferences and world congresses as well as international journals and publications are now well known and contribute to a better dissemination of knowledge and experience on engineering education.

2-7. The emerging information and communication technology

Engineering education was largely influenced during the last decades by the emergence and the development of the information and communication technology. The place and the role of the computer are now obvious. The networks between computers become true educational systems, as well as they offer opportunities to link education, information and research. Many recent conferences on Computer Aided Engineering Education (CAEE) point out the necessity to better integrate this formidable tool in the re-definition of enginering courses and pedagogies. The development of systems that provides higher engineering education through satellites and information and communication networks (thanks to Internet) is now considered as a very positive approach for the future.

3 - NEW PERSPECTIVES FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION

3-1. New institutions, new approaches of networking

During the last years, especially in Europe, one attended an important move towards some forms of institutional concentration and/or networking. Consortiums were strongly encouraged, for instance, by the European Union in order to stimulate the creation of new educational products and new information systems. Networks of technical universities and enginering schools were multiplied. It is also interesting to see, in France for instance, how the traditional individualist engineering schools are now trying to set-up new collective webs in order to develop international, research or business activities. This is for instance the case for nine of the most prestigious French Grandes Ecoles located in Paris that decided few years ago to set up the so-called GEI Paris (Grandes Ecoles d'Ingénieurs de Paris or Group of Engineering Institutes of Paris)

In other words, it appears more and more important to set-up new institutions (or new ways of ccoperating between institutions) in order to be able to face the development of the future higher education and specialized information market. It is necessary, for a country like France as well as for a continent suc as Europe, to define the few future major poles that will be able to invest in new and heavy equipments for the dissemination of information and knowledge, especially in the field of scientific, technical and engineering education. Joint ventures between technical universities and national and multinational advanced companies will certainly be multiplied in the near future.

3-2. Information access and continuing or life-long education

A consequence of the emergence of the new information society should be the transformation of the present ways of providing continuing education and disseminating knowledges. In the future, it will be very easy to give access to specialized information and structured knowledge to every professional, to every engineer, either within his or her entreprise, or even directly at home. This will be an important market that universities should not forget, especially if one takes into account the need for life-long education and training.

3-3. Creating new information-education products and services

The information revolution will also stimulate teaching staffs at university, as well as researchers, to create new educational products and services. The recent multiplication of international conferences on computer aided engineering education gives testimonies of such a perspective. It will be important to encourage engineering professors to develop such educational modules which mix access to information and consolidation of knowledge (the European Union, for instance, supports such projects). These modules should be easily transferable, exchangable and should be accessable through various channels (CD-ROM, Internet, satellites,...).

Consequently, the payment of the teaching staff should give priority to such educational investment and take much more into account the work done for the creation of transferable information and knowledge modules. Education is becoming a cultural and economical investment.

3-4. New management schemes for engineering education

Many recent international conferences pointed out the importance of quality control in education and the role of a new management perspective in engineering education. The information revolution, but also the present constraints as well as the new aims, oblige engineering faculties and schools to establish quality and management procedures which can not be reduced to the traditional rules and practices of the university functioning (faculty, department, etc.). In some countries, one tries to take into account the ISO 9,000 standard and to use it in engineering education. In other countries, new assessment or evaluation procedures are set-up at national level, in order to better adapt engineering education to society needs.

A new managerial approach seems to be ado^ted here or there which tries to better balance the various components of an educational programme under new economical conditions. One tries, for instance, to find a balanced proportion between traditional lectures, project and laboratory work, practical experience in industry, international exchanges, and, of course, information access facilities. At the institution level, one tries also to better mix educational and research activities, first or initial education, post-graduate education and continuing education, information dissemination and knowledge development.

The new information and knowledge infrastructure calls a new management awareness and needs new managerial skills and procedures, based on a more systemic approach. The management team of such new institution should find convergences or compromises between different logics:

- the strategical, economical and decision-making process;

- the educational perspective (disciplines, departments, teaching staff,...);

- the market orientation (education, research and information markets);

- the society needs, the educational aims, the standards (long term strategy).

4 - QUALITY, EVALUATION AND ACCREDITATION PROCEDURES

4-1. Traditional national approaches

Considering the old traditions of engineering education in Europe, there are well established routines for the evaluation and accreditation of educational programmes (at National level) as well as for the assessment of the teaching-learning process. Of course, there is no unique model but diversified approaches.

Thus in UK, each University, each Engineering Departement can freely create and develop educational programmes without any special conditions, except that it should be financially well balanced. There is no national formal system of evaluation. In the British tradition, the role of peers reviews is important ; thus external examiners are appointed in order to yearly assess undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the various universities. National engineering institutions (and, at the global level the Engineering Council) play an important role in controlling access to the title of Chartered Engineer. Recently, EPC (the Engineering Professors Conference) established a formal sheme for the development of new procedures based on quality management approaches.

In Germany, engineering educational programmes (as any other higher educational programmes) are strongly controlled by the federal and regional administrations. There is few flexibility for a technical university that wish to innovate (the situation seems to be better for FH - Fach-Hochschulen- that are much more market-oriented). But if it exists a strong formal system of "a priori" control or evaluation, one has to recognize that there are few procedures for "a posteriori" control or assessment, the "Herr-Professor Doctor" remains the unique quality reference, mainly based on is research work.

For France, the situation could be describe as a mix between a private-liberal approach and a State-controlled one. The academical institutions (Grandes Ecoles d'Ingénieurs) have much freedom in creating and developing educational programmes ; there is no unique formal schemes (such as in Germany). Nevertheless, new programmes have to be submit, for authorization, to a national body, called CTI - Commission des Titres d'Ingénieurs -. The Commission evaluate, as regularly as possible, the various engineering schools, especially the private institutions (the older traditional public Grandes Ecoles are generally considered in France as high-quality institutions, educating the elits for the country and often mentionned by the various national medias). CTI is an official board, founded by a 1934' law with representatives from the State, the engineering schools, industry and trade unions. This is a unique case, in the whole French higher education system, of such an evaluation body being an interface (screen?) between the State and the academical institutions.

Some ten years ago, one decided in France, to set up another national body, called Comité National d'Evaluation for universities and research centers. The role of CNE consists mainly in evaluating the various academical institutions but also in examining some key issues for higher education. Independant from the State, CNE produced reports that are largely disseminated. Many engineering schools asked CNE for evaluation (ENPC was the first one). During six months, all components of the institution are examined and assessed : educational programmes, recruitments, staff composition, research activities, libraries, equipements, links with industry, etc.

4-2. European trends towards harmonization and mutual recognition

Of course, due to the historical diversity of higher education, it does not exist a formal European scheme for evaluation of academical institutions. Nevertheless, one can mention here some trends towards the establishment of common rules, taking into account the need for more intra-European mobility.

Thus, FEANI, the European Federation of National Engineering Associations, founded some years ago a special scheme for the delivery of an European Title of Engineers (Eur-Ing). Such a scheme considers the initial academical education and also the first years of professional experience of the young engineer. This is not an "a posteriori" evaluation scheme, but a more formal system that can help to harmonize different views and practices ; nevertheless it means that academical programmes that are taken into account within the scheme have to be assessed (at least at national level).

FEANI and the French CTI are now discussing with ABET (Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology - USA) in order to examine the possibilities to converge towards some harmonized schemes at worldwide level for the assessment and the accreditation of engineering programmes.

Another work is done by a large consortium of European institution, with the support of the European Union. H3E (Higher Engineering Education in Europe) aims at developing networks for the global improvment of engineering education ; a working group is devoted to quality assessment and to mutual recognition.

One can also mention many efforts made, here and there, during the last years in order to find convergencies and to promote the concepts of mutual recognition for a better European mobility. Thus, the ECTS (European Credits Transfer System) allows students to learn within different institutions, without any problems for getting their degrees or diplomas. Many institutions offer also the possibility for students to get a joint-degree in a given limited period of time. At a more professional level, there are projects for the certification of academical knowledges and professional competencies such as EuroRecord or the Repertoire of the French Council of Engineers (CNISFdeg.. Considering all theses projects or schemes, one cannot avoid to discuss the problem of defining, assessing, certifying the quality of engineering education.

4-3. Total quality management in engineering education

Besides the traditional national schemes for assessing educational programmes (CTI, CNE in France for instance), besides the traditional peer reviews (external examiners of the British tradition), besides at last the traditional and frequent internal evaluation processes (students evaluation, staff evaluation,...), one can see now an interesting development of new approaches based on new concepts such as the use of the ISO 9,000 standards for quality management.

SEFI (the European Society for Engineering education) devoted its 1993 annual conference on this subject ("Achieving and Assessing Quality in Engineering Education". Some selected papers were published within EJEE (European Journal of Enginnering Education), Volume 19 Ndeg.3, 1994, pp 251-350.

In UK, EPC (the Enginnering Professors Conference) established and proposed a scheme called "The EPC Model for Quality Assurance in Higher Education". Some technical universities and engineering departments adopted and developed this approach. Thus, the School of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham proposes an application of QFD for the improvement of quality in an engineering department (paper to be published by Owlia, Aspinwall in a near issue of EJEE). Another experience was done at the University of Leeds within the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

In the Netherlands, at the Hogeschool Utrecht, one tryied to develop a quality programme for higher education. In Belgium too, especially at the KU Leuven, an interesting experience was made for the ISO 9,000 certification of an academic unit (see Gelders, Proost, Van der Heyde, EJEE Vol 20 Ndeg.4, 1995). A TQM-policy at KU Leuven is now established for selecting, conducting and evaluating project activities in the field of industrial management (paper to be published within EJEE Vol 22 Ndeg.4, 1994). The College of Applied Engineering and Maritime Studies at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) developed also a concept for quality management in engineering education.

There are other attempts to use TQM procedures in engineering education (as for instance in France for continuing education). But, generally speaking, it seems to be too early to conclude that this is a good way for improving higher enginering education. Exchanges of experiences between European and Latin American institutions, through the Colombus cooperation, scheme could certainly help for a better understanding of what is possible and interesting to do.

5 - ANOTHER LOOK AT INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE

5-1. The emergence of the information technology and society

The present situation can be caracterized by the emergence of information and communication in all fields of individual and professional life. The specialized information systems, tools and networks become more and more important and powerful. American politicians as well as Europeans ones are now strongly discussing the need of new information infrastructures, ready to put billions of dollars or ECUs in the construction of such information superhighways. Data bases, data banks, experts systems, CAE, CAM, CIM, EDI, CD-ROM, CD-I, Internet, multimedias, groupware, etc.: engineers, entreprises, educators are really facing a new situation in which information resources (whatever the way of accessing them) are becoming key resources for the development of industry and society activities.

5-2. Transfer of what: information and/or knowledge?

In some respects, enginering education should not be limited to the unique transfer, around the age of 20, of a box of fixed knowledges which can be used during the entire career. The information revolution accelerates the changes in the society and open our minds to world-wide situations, to experiences and knowledges which we were unable to imagine some minutes before looking at our e-mail messages. Everyone can easily access to pieces of information and/or knowledge which are produced in another part of the world. Everyone can easily access to structured as well as unstructured information, public as well as confidential information. Everyone can easily access but also produce and disseminate information.

Under these conditions, the important question we have to answer is the following: does-it now exist a difference between fixed and structured education on the one hand and world-wide and circulating information on the other hand, in terms of preparing our minds (especially engineers' minds) to face new complex and moving situations and to develop professional activities?

5-3. Access to information: what's about class-rooms?

Schematically, one could assert that there is no more a necessity to build and use an engineering school or faculty for educating and training an engineer. There is no more necessary to geographically concentrate students at a given place and in a given time for teaching them the bases of mechanical engineering or water resources management. There is no more necessary to build class rooms for providing access to information and knowledge.

If an engineering faculty still continue to mean something, for which objectives, functions and services does it? Are engineering professors useful, if they still continue to repeat within the class-room what is more easily available through information channels?

5-4. Training engineers to manage their information resources

One important objective should also be the training of future engineers in the field of information and knowledge management. They certainly should better benefit, today, from the use of data bases as well as library or information centres. They should be rapidly exposed to modern information tools such as CD-ROM, CD-I, Internet, multimedia, etc., and be able to move within the new cyberspace. More than 50% of the classical lectures at technical universities (especially during the first years) should be suppressed and replaced by consultation of appropriate information and knowledge systems. Satellites, electronic networking, distance learning have to be considered now by universities as major factor for the development of enginering education and investments should be done in this direction, at local, national or regional levels.

5-5. What's about curriculum development and pedagogy ?

An engineering curriculum should consist, in the future, in a structured but flexible organization with combine a personal access to numerous sources of pertinent information and knowledge and a strong, rigourous tutoring whose aim is to help students to transform variable information into durable knowledge. This new curriculum should encourage students to develop professional experiences such as project works, contacts with industry, international exchanges, etc.

The engineering faculty should of course provide access to the pertinent information sources and facilitate the educational communication among the students and staff community (on large geographical areas): electronic tutoring should, for instance, be strongly emphasized. The faculty should also set-up the procedures for the consolidation of the students knowledges (laboratory work, project work, pedagogical exchanges,...) and for the assessment of the learning results.

***

The world obviously has changed and is rapidly changing. But do our universities, our engineering schools take into account these transformations? Do they adapt their approaches of education to the new information society?

We, engineering educators, are forced to imagine, create and develop new ways for the education and training of future engineers. We have to integrate approaches allowing autonomous self-learning practices and facilitating the generalized and open access to information and knowledge. We have to invent and set-up the methodological and pedagogical components of a new educational perspective, which better links information and knowledge, first education and life-long education, personal and professional developments and a global comprehension of the society transformations. We, at last, have to define the appropriate conditions of a new management of the education and information resources valid at various scales, from local to national or even world-wide levels.

Engineering education ... how can we look at it now without closing our eyes to society' changes and needs?