In collaboration with Thematic Networks and Higher Educational Institutions, BEST provides technical students with opportunities to express their opinions about European Engineering Education (EEE).

We believe students have an essential impact on their own education, therefore BEST transmits students’ opinions to the responsibles for EEE.

Besides Courses and Engineering Competitions, BEST also organises Events on Education (EoEs). These are seminars that last approximately six days, gather up to 25 students with different nationalities and focus on evaluating and contributing to the development of higher engineering education in Europe. During these events, students can gain knowledge and share their opinions on the latest trends in the field of European Engineering Education (EEE).

There are two types of EoEs: BEST Symposium on Education, which gathers students and academic representatives and BEST Academics and Companies forum, that in addition to students and academics includes industry representatives. During EoEs, participants exchange opinions and share experiences via discussions, workshops and case studies.

In Summer 2013, three EoEs were organised around the Europe and each of them tackled a different topic.‘Next station, sustainable education’, organised by BEST Madrid, was a follow-up event to an earlier symposium organised by BEST Vienna in 2012. The main goal of this event was to discuss the effect of EEE on Sustainable Development as well as catalysing ideas for projects that will be run by students of technology in the future.

“Bringing education and entrepreneurship under students’ scope”, organised by BEST Timisoara, dealt with the topics of virtual mobility and entrepreneurship. The main objective of this event was to introduce students to the topic of virtual internships and gather input for PROVIP, one of BEST’s partners.

“EdYOUcation – Raise your hand, make a change”, organised by BEST Aveiro, gathered both international and local students who approached the topic of accreditation and attractiveness of EEE. At the event, among other stakeholders for EEE, Attract, an european project on engineering education, presented their ideas and gathered information on the topic of student retention in higher education.

In order to reach the desired outcomes, the atmosphere tends to be more informal than in a lecturing hall which encourages students to speak their mind and share their opinions. It is of great importance to us to establish a dialogue between our partners and find a solution to common challenges.