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oa Chemical engineering education in European higher education
- Publisher: Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press)
- Source: QScience Proceedings, Engineering Leaders Conference 2014 on Engineering Education, Aug 2015, Volume 2015, 30
Abstract
The Bologna process started in 1999 when Ministers of Education from 29 European countries signed the Bologna declaration 1 . Fifteen years later, 47 countries are participating in the Bologna process while jointly establishing the common European Higher Education Area (EHEA) 2 and adopting the Bologna Three Cycle Degree System, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate. One of the main objectives with respect to chemical engineering education has been to adopt chemical engineering programs to the needs of current and future (bio)chemical, specialty chemical, pharmaceutical, food, medical and other process industries.
Two questions have been posed in order to reshape current chemical engineering study programs: i) which skills and knowledge, common to all chemical engineers, should not be ignored while developing new chemical engineer curricula, and ii) which are other chemical engineering topics, engineering fields and non-engineering knowledge necessary for the engineers to manage problems of specific current and future (bio)chemical and process related industries.
In order to clarify the first question, the Working Party for Education at the European Federation of Chemical Engineers (EFCE) developed EFCE Recommendations for Chemical Engineering Education in the Bologna Three Cycle Degree System 3 . One of the aims of this presentation is to discuss basic learning outcomes and recommended topics common to all chemical engineers. On the other hand, some non-traditional orientations and topics like chemical engineering concepts of molecular transformation, different scale of process/product operations, bio-, product-, energy-, and environmental engineering will be outlined in order to approach the second question. A structure of a typical chemical engineering program, which consists of consecutive study of exact and natural sciences, natural phenomena, Chemical Engineering Science, and Process Systems Engineering, incorporating both the analytical and synthesis approaches, will be outlined. The distribution of the program across the Bologna three cycle study system will be discussed.