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Biomedical Engineering Education Moving Towards European Harmonization:
Initiatives and Experiences
The continuing, dynamic development of Medical and Biological Engineering and Sciences (MBES), the
consequential fast expansion of educational programs, and the political changes in Europe which emphasize
mobility and employability in a European Higher Education Area, demand that the profes-sional societies
in the field of MBES face the challenges to actively participate in shaping the future of this highly
successful discipline by leading and guiding the further development of higher MBES edu-cation.
Achieving unimpeded employability in the European labour market, mobility in the European higher education
area, compatibility and comparability of educational degrees within a common but flexible qualifications
network, quality assurance and competitiveness in Europe and in the world, require the professional societies
in Europe to develop strategies, criteria and recommendations for the realization of the European Higher
Education Area with regard to MBES. Agreements must be reached concern-ing harmonized outcome-based
accreditation of educational programs throughout Europe, training, continuing education, certification
of individuals, and the arising questions about a regulation of the MBES professions.
Importance and spectrum of Biomedical Engineering keep growing, as do the educational programs. This
situation forces us to think about issues such as; who will be the guardians and pacesetters of medical
and biological engineering education? How do we secure the necessary influence of the pro-fessional societies
on education, and the standing of the BME professions? Which countries and schools are our role models
while moving towards the European Higher Education Area?
Today, more than 150 universities, colleges of applied science, polytechnic schools and academies in Europe
offer educational programs in MBES at all academic levels, but with very little international coordination of
contents and required outcome qualifications. In order to maintain and further the high quality of European MBES
education, the ProTem Group of EAMBES, formerly the IFMBE AdHoc Group for European Activities, is currently
charting all MBES educational programs throughout Europe, and preparing recommendations for competitive MBES
education and harmonized accredita-tion of the multitude of diverse programs for the benefit of the MBES
professions and thus for society.
The initiative proved to be an overwhelming success. 27 European BME societies have so far contrib-uted articles
for the White Book, describing the status of biomedical engineering and the societies in general, as well as
BME education and accreditation of BME programs in their countries. While edit-ing these contributions, it
became apparent that special efforts are already being made with regard to the foundation or change of
educational programs and their accreditation following the requirements of the Bologna Declaration. When
we started to organize a special session on accreditation and educa-tion for EMBEC'02, we decided to
concentrate on these concrete initiatives and experiences rather than asking the individual authors of the
White Book to present their contributions which would have resulted in a two-day marathon.
The titles of the presentations reflect these special efforts, experiences and difficulties in the respective
countries as far as they are representative for the European situation and offer important information for
other countries, and were chosen just for that reason. What we are especially interested in is the experience
that was made taking the different steps, the problems that occurred, the successes that were made and any
advice that could be given to the counties that are just starting or will soon start the process. Are there
special experiences related to the specific circumstances in, or special situations of a country, e.g.
strong financial problems, like Romania, establishment of BME only 10 years ago and already trying to make
the changes required by the Bologna Declaration like, Estonia, a small labor market in a small country like
Croatia, educational systems and structures that have grown over the centuries, like in Italy, Germany,
Austria and Spain? Are there, on the other hand, any experiences or problems that can occur independently
of special situations in any country and can they be avoided?
The session is planned to start with a short outline of the contents of the White Book on Accreditation of
Biomedical Engineering Programs in Europe, followed by presentations that should focus on the special problems
and experiences concerning harmonization of biomedical engineering education in Europe.
Joachim Nagel
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