European Project Semester

Introduction

Engineering is a major driver for sustainable socio-economic development (United Nations, 2021). It has helped humankind solve problems and survive crises by responding with viable solutions to emergency situations and has always played a crucial role in socio-economic development while addressing basic human needs by connecting social needs with technological applications. That is why the education of engineering professionals is crucial to ensure societal well-being with future technological innovation. Engineering education aims to prepare professionals to address the challenges of the future. This highly demanding goal does not only imply a forecast of future needs, no matter how precarious and unpredictable they can be, but also requires the anticipation of scientific and technological advancement trends. Higher education must face this challenge while including theory-based study programs, addressing industry-oriented practical phases (Dispert et al., 2014) and socio-cultural changes on a global scale. As increased globalization triggers intercultural exchange through the free movement of capital and people, it is inevitable for universities to intensify international exchange in a variety of educational programs, e.g., joint diplomas, international internship schemes, Erasmus+ programs, or international and interdisciplinary projects. Thus, engineering product design is “not an isolated activity” (Andersen, 2001) but rooted in a natural socio-economic environment. As such, it requires high-quality engineering, marketing, and business competencies as well as transversal skills such as collaborating in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams or communicating effectively with a variety of project stakeholders.

The European Project Semester (EPS) attempts to address the challenge by adopting collaborative, experiential, project-based learning (PBL) methodologies. It exposes students to cultural and scientific diversity. To promote learning autonomy, the teams are fully responsible for the project management and execution, solution discovery, selection of materials and components, and assembling and testing prototypes (Malheiro et al., 2019a). EPS has two main goals: (i) to motivate young adults to learn engineering; and (ii) to provide participants with an international and professional experience (Mulder et al., 2015). To motivate students, EPS adopts teamwork, PBL and proposes real-life problems in close cooperation with various stakeholders, namely, businesses, public institutions, and research centers. Being an international multidisciplinary exchange program, EPS exposes students to the new culture of the host country and higher-education institution. What is more, the students work in teams with peers from different cultural and scientific backgrounds and get insight into the professional environments of associated businesses, institutions, or research centers. The EPS learning framework increases employability prospects of young engineers by simultaneously developing: (i) sound scientific and technological competencies; (ii) intercultural and cross-discipline communication skills; (iii) and a professional attitude.

EPS started in Denmark in 1995, by the hand of Arvid Andersen, and has since spread to nineteen other universities located in twelve European countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and The United Kingdom. EPS has involved hundreds of highly motivated academic, administrative, and support staff from the various providers and thousands of successful international alumni from all continents during its lifespan.

This chapter aims to present an overview of the EPS concept and network of providers. The chapter is organized into the following sections: EPS background, the network of EPS providers, and reflections.