Abstract:

One of the main objectives of higher education is to provide its graduates with the skills needed to succeed in the labour market. This mission is especially challenging in the context of the sudden transformation in teaching and learning processes driven by the last pandemic. Digitalisation has fostered the implementation of virtual learning methodologies, upgrading the existing materials and favouring collaborative work with an international approach.

In that context, the paper describes the goals and major features of the International Cooperation Framework for Next Generation Engineering Students (NextGEng) project. It is a recently granted Erasmus+ Cooperation partnership in higher education project that involves a consortium of 6 partners from European universities and companies. It aims to develop an international cooperation framework that promotes international team-teaching aligned with the European Education Area 2025 and labour market needs, including actions to support collaborative international and experiential learning in engineering.

To achieve that end, NextGEng is based on three lines of action: a tailored training process for teachers, an international team-teaching pilot program and cases for experiential learning. Further details of such approaches and potential impact of the project's actions will be discussed in the paper.

Keywords:

International collaborative learning, University-Business cooperation, innovation, multidisciplinary.