Higher Education Institutions as international hubs in community service engineering innovation networks a European Lifelong Learning Program project

Abstract

In the Lifelong Learning Project `Community Service Engineering (CSE)' six European partners work on engineering curricula specifically in the social domain. Engineering educators and the social domain do not typically speak the same language, which leaves a lot of innovation potential amongst student projects untouched. The main goal of the collaboration is to design an international post-graduate course and graduate and undergraduate electives in Community Service Engineering, with an international and blended learning component. In the network economy Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) form a hub in research and development for societal innovation and transformation. Vulnerable groups in society can benefit from this, when future engineers give them and their unmet needs special attention. For this the Community Service Engineering (CSE) project works on defining a CSE curriculum and educational framework based on CDIO principles. Increasing effectiveness of education by providing authentic and activating learning environments are parts of the formula the CSE project focuses on. A combination of push and pull mechanisms can be set up in two ways between the technological enterprises, the social domain and HEIs. In these networks education can shift from teaching students to reinvent the wheel time and again in an artificial setting to letting them participate in interdisciplinary co-creation in an authentic learning environment, solving real problems in transformation research. HEIs can facilitate and monitor the learning processes of students and teaching staff. By using a joint digital platform for blended learning and building thematic digital repositories around CSE, HEIs can join forces in an international setting, and work in a bigger context around local and unique innovation challenges in order to make society more inclusive for vulnerable groups.