Abstract:

The Faculty of Engineering Science at KU Leuven has a longstanding tradition in educating engineering students and has grown to become an internationally recognised center of knowledge and knowledge creation. A wide variety of different engineering programmes are offered both at the Bachelor’s level (2), at the Master’s level (23) and at the Advanced Master’s level (6). Over 3,000 students are trained in line with an academic tradition in which education is strongly based on research. The quality of the education is considered top priority of the Faculty, though maintaining a good balance between monitoring and feasability is a daily concern.

Good quality assurance at the scale of a large Faculty requires systematic monitoring and evaluation supported by appropriate instruments and processes, executed by well-defined actors and integrated in solid processes for education organisation in general. To optimise its quality assurance and its feasibility, the faculty recently revised and evaluated its instruments. For each instrument goals, practice, main actors and frequency of use were stipulated. An important issue in the revision was the involvement of all stakeholders in engineering education, more specific students, teaching staff, programme directors, management, alumni and industry.

Besides the critical evaluation of individual instruments, the paper also focuses on the integration of the instruments in education organisation in general and more specific in the organization of the concerned faculty. General conclusions are drawn and future plans, e.g. the use of more innovative instruments, are formulated.