HARMONIZING THE CURRICULA OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING PROGRAMS IN EUROPE: THE TEMPUS CRH-BME PROJECT

The impressive progress in the creation of medical knowledge combined with the progress in other related scientific domains and fields of technology provided during the last 4 decades an excellent ground for the advancement of the Biomedical Engineering (BME) sector. Successful biomedical research resulting to the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic methods, techniques and equipment, has lead to a radical change in the way health care is delivered today. Given this dynamic situation, Biomedical Engineers should be prepared nowadays to adapt to existing or forecasted needs, in the form of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Those needs address the demands of the work environment in the broader health care related sector. Therefore, there is a strong pressure on education, training and life. In year 2000, more than 50 Universities were delivering a BME program in the field of BME, according to a study performed by the Institute of Biomedical Technology (INBIT), Patras, Greece. 26 of them were offering an undergraduate program and 6 of them more than one program related to the field; 33 Institutions were running their program within an inter-university national or international collaboration scheme, from which 15 under the ERASMUS program; 20 Universities were applying the ECTS; 29 Institutions used Quality Assessment schemes and 37 reported a follow-up by means of student opinion surveys; 24 Institutions validated their programs with industry and other employers and 20 out of them used external evaluators. One of these program is the European BME postgraduate program running at the University of Patras since 1989, with the participation of more than 25 European Universities through bilateral agreements (within ERASMUS and TEMPUS programs). The program draws expertise from a large multinational academic community, with 30 teachers originated from 15 different European Universities and addresses a multinational audience from more than 10 European countries. More than 450 students have been educated up to now. The primary objective of the program is to offer a high degree of specialization in Biomedical Engineering and a dynamic, continuously updated curriculum in pace with the most recent developments in the field. Its topics and background setting will act catalytically in the process of integration of multinational student groups. The curriculum of the program follows the recommendations provided ten years ago by the TEMPERE project involving 50 European Universities.
Today given the recent developments in biomedical technology, the market demands and the political pressure for harmonization and mutual recognition on higher education, there is a strong need to reform the curricula and implement ECTS on the basis of students’ workload and learning outcomes. The aim of the CRH-BME project is to review, update and harmonise the current curricula in BME education, in pace with the most recent developments the new emerging interdisciplinary domains and the market demands and implement a commonly accepted ECT System that will also facilitate student mobility.