EFCE Bologna Recommendations Recommendations for Chemical Engineering Education in a Bologna Two Cycle Degree System (Draft as of Mai 2005)

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EFCE Bologna Recommendations Recommendations
for Chemical Engineering Education in a Bologna
Two Cycle Degree System(Draft as of Mai 2005)

• Dr.-Ing. Martin Molzahn, D Weisenheim am Berg
• Prof. dr. ing. Jørgen Løvland, N - Trondheim
• EFCE WP on Education
• EURECHA Workshop, ESCAPE 15, Barcelona, 31 May
  2005

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Outline

• The Bologna Process
• Objectives, milestones
• EFCE policy on Bologna Process
• EFCE Bologna Recommendations
• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• General chemical engineering skills and knowledge
• Transferable skills
• Achieving the learning outcomes
• Core curriculum
• Teaching and learning
• Industrial experience
• Review of the educational process
• Student assessment
• Conclusion

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Bologna Process Main Objectives / Elements

• To establish the European Higher Education Area
  (EHEA) by 2010 by
• Adoption of a system of easily readable and
  comparable degrees, also through the
  implementation of the Diploma Supplement
• Adoption of a system essentially based on two
  main cycles, undergraduate and graduate.
• Access to the second shall require successful
  completion of first cycle studies, lasting a
  minimum of three years. The degree awarded after
  the first cycle shall also be relevant to the
  European labour market as an appropriate level of
  qualification.
• Establishment of a system of credits such as in
  the ECTS as a proper means of promoting the
  most widespread student mobility.
• Promotion of mobility by overcoming obstacles to
  the effective exercise of free movement

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Bologna Process Why?

• National systems of higher education in Europe
  become more and more hindrances for the mobility
  of students and employees
• Degrees most often awarded and accredited on a
  national basis, but to be recognized by the
  international labour market
• Attraction of European higher education to
  students and professors of other parts of the
  world decreased continuously
• Problems with the readability and the recognition
  of degrees
• European students asking increasingly for
  transnational programmes

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Bologna Process Milestones

• 1998 Sorbonne (France, Germany, Italy, UK)
• Initiative to harmonize the European Higher
  Education System
• 1999 Bologna Declaration (30 (45) countries)
• To establish the European Higher Education Area
  (EHEA) by 2010
• 2001 Prague (1st follow-up conference)
• promotion of life long learning
• enhancing attractiveness and competitiveness of
  the European Higher Education Area to other parts
  of the world
• 2003 Berlin (2nd follow-up conference,
  http//www.bologna-berlin2003.de)
• To speed up the process
• National quality assurance systems completed by
  2005
• Second cycle degrees should give access to
  doctoral studies
• 2005 Bergen (3rd follow-up conference,
  http//www.bologna-bergen2005.no)
• Statement on HE and research (third cycle 3 - 4
  years full time)

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EFCE Policy on the Bologna Process)

• EFCE welcomes and supports the idea of
  establishing a European Higher Education Area
• EFCE is willing to co-operate with all parties
  involved in the Bologna Process
• EFCE will take into account the merits and
  benefits of existing engineering education as
  well as of the role of Chemical Engineering in
  the participating countries
• EFCE believes that a reasonable degree of
  diversity in the training of Chemical Engineers
  is desirable

) ChERD (Trans. IChemE), 81/A10, 1406, November
2003 http//www.efce.info
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EFCE Bologna Recommendations

• Introduction
• Referring to the EFCE Statement on Bologna
  Process
• Referring to the 2001 and 2003 communiqués of
  the Conferences of Ministers responsible for
  Higher Education
• , degrees should have different defined
  outcomes. First and second cycle degrees should
  have different orientations and various profiles
  in order to accommodate a diversity of
  individual, academic and labour market needs.
• Learning outcomes formulated in a general way
• Reflecting the wide area of industries employing
  Chemical Engineers coming out of different ways
  of education
• Core curricula
• Covering approx. 2/3 of a first and a second
  level degree programme
• Giving space for specialization and broadening

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The diversity of Chemical Engineering curricula
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First cycle degree CE outcomes

• After graduation, a first level degree chemical
  engineer should
• have a knowledge of relevant basic sciences
  (mathematics, chemistry, molecular biology,
  physics) to help understand, describe and deal
  with chemical engineering phenomena
• understand the basic principles underlying
  chemical engineering
• material, energy, momentum balances
• equilibrium
• rate processes (chemical reaction, mass, heat,
  momentum transfer)
• and be able to use them to set up and to solve
  (analytically, numerically, graphically) a
  variety of chemical engineering problems
• understand the main concepts of process control
• understand the principles underlying methods of
  process/product measurements
• be able to plan, perform, explain and report
  simple experiments

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First cycle degree CE outcomes (contd.)

• Further, after graduation, a first level degree
  chemical engineer should
• have a knowledge of relevant literature and data
  sources
• have a basic understanding of health, safety, and
  environmental issues
• understand the concept of sustainability
• understand basic concepts of chemical product
  engineering
• have knowledge of some practical applications of
  process and product engineering
• have an ability to analyse complex problems in
  the chosen orientation
• have some experience in using appropriate
  software
• be able to perform appropriate design in the
  chosen orientation
• be able to calculate process and project costs

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Second cycle degree CE outcomes

• A second cycle degree study will be characterized
  by greater differentiation both between
  institutions and between students.
• After graduation, a second level degree chemical
  engineer should
• be more proficient in the first level
  competencies in the chosen orientation
• use deeper knowledge of the underlying phenomena
  to build more advanced models
• be able to use appropriate computational tools
• be able to perform more advanced experiments and
  to give more advancedinterpretations of the
  results
• be able to analyze, evaluate and compare relevant
  alternatives in the chosen orientation
• be able to synthesize and optimize novel
  solutions
• be able to self-study a topic in depth
• Final outcomes of a second cycle degree programme
  to be (at least) equivalent to those of
  traditional long-cycle (4,5 5 years)
  programmes.
• Graduates to be able to work as research
  engineers and to go for doctoral studies.

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Transferable skills

• An engineering education should give the engineer
  a number of transferable skills, which are more
  or less independent of the type of engineering.
  These skills are not specific to the core or to
  the degree level, but will be acquired to some
  extent in the first level study and will be
  deepened in the second.
• After graduation, an engineer should
• be able to communicate effectively, including in
  English, using modern presentation tools as
  appropriate
• be able to work in multidisciplinary teams
• have an understanding of the impact of
  engineering solutions in an environmental and
  societal context
• have an understanding of professional end ethical
  responsibility
• be able to learn on his/her own, and have a
  recognition of the need for life-long learning

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First cycle degree core curriculum

• Science and mathematics min.
  45 ECTU
• Mathematics, statistics, numerical methods,
  information science, physics, chemistry and
  biology (incl. laboratory)
• Chemical engineering min. 65 ECTU
• Material and energy balance calculations,
  thermodynamics / physical chemistry, fluid
  dynamics, separations (mechanical, equilibrium
  and mass transfer based), heat transfer, reaction
  engineering, materials of construction, basic
  product engineering,process control and
  instrumentation, process analytical techniques,
  safety, health, environment, chemical
  engineering laboratory, first cycle thesis /
  chemical engineering project
• Non-technical topics min. 10 ECTU
• Economics .
• Total min. 120 ECTU

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Second cycle degree core curriculum

• Science and mathematics min 15 ECTU
• Chemical engineering topics min 40 ECTU
• Second cycle thesis / Chemical engineeringproject
  min 20 ECTU
• Total min 75 ECTU
• Although no topics are specified here it is clear
  from the recommended learning outcomes that
  central chemical engineering topics such as
  transport phenomena, chemical reaction
  engineering, dynamic modelling as well as topics
  such as statistics/optimization/parameter
  estimation must be included to the extent they
  have not been covered in the first cycle
  study.

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Teaching and learning

• Teaching and learning methods
• To be appropriate for the topic in question
• To develop students skills to work independently
  and in teams
• To include
• Group work and communication tasks
• Self-study and problem solving tasks
• Suitable examples for illustration and discussion
  of ethical, societal, environmental and
  professional issues
• Courses to show the broad applicability of
  chemical engineering methods

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Industrial experience

• Industry has to play an important role in the
  formation of engineers
• Industrial experience
• serves to illustrate the applications and
  limitations of theory
• helps to set the courses in a wider context
• motivates for the remaining study
• provides social skills for later leadership roles
• Industrial experience for all can only be
  obtained if industry accepts the responsibility
  of providing sufficient placements

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Assessment

• Review of the educational process
• Each educational institution should have an
  ongoing review of the educational process, to
  ensure that
• the parts are up to date and properly coordinated
• that each and every part contributes towards the
  aims of the course
• and in general to improve the educational
  outcomes
• Student assessment
• EFCE would like to emphasize the need for
  appropriate feed-back to maximise the learning
  effect of the assessments

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Conclusion

• EFCE WP on Education prepared draft EFCE Bologna
  Recommendations for Chemical Engineering
  Education in a Bologna Two cycle Degree system
  covering
• Learning outcomes
• general chemical engineering skills and knowledge
• transferable skills
• Means to achieve the learning outcomes
• Core curriculum (approx. 2/3 of full programmes)
• Teaching and learning
• Review of the educational process
• Student assessment
• EFCE WP chairmen brought in some further
  suggestions
• Recommendations to be published soon
• Comments welcome