EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING IN EUROPE: HARMONISATION ACTIVITIES

Zoi Kolitsi, Dept of Medical Physics, University of Patras, Greece
Nicolas Pallikarakis, Dept of Medical Physics, University of Patras, Greece

 

Mutual recognition among member states is a pre-condition for the abolition of obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. Within this general objective, the Bologna Declaration - signed in 1999 by the Ministers of Education of 29 European countries, including all EU member states - constitutes a significant document, emphasizing the importance of education and European co-operation of educational institutions, towards the development of the European Higher Education Area, within the first decade of the new millennium. It also aims to promote European citizens' employability and to strengthen the international competitiveness of the European higher education system. A necessary condition for this is the adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees. The political commitment undertaken, is that the greatest convergence of national systems should be achieved by the year 2010, within the European Space of Higher Education. In this context, convergence implies the creation of conditions for effective communication, understanding and hence mutual recognition. 

These developments inevitably affect education and training in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering as well as the whole development of the professions and organizations involved in education, training and research are challenged to keep pace with this changing environment. TEMPERE has been a European thematic network under the SOCRATES EU programme, which run between 1996-2000 and involved professionals, organizations and professional bodies in the fields of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. The project provided a forum for productive interaction on the relevant professional issues, which led to a proposal for a European framework for mutual co-operation and recognition in the above fields, in the form of the TEMPERE Recommendations [1]. This paper elaborates on the relationship of the Bologna Declaration, as well as the correlation of individual statements, to the TEMPERE recommendations.