Having introduced the CDIO Syllabus and the CDIO Standards, the authors review some of the factors that have influenced the development of engineering education in the USA, Canada, Sweden and the UK. Representative engineering programmes from each country are then used to illustrate that there are national differences in engineering curricula. As a consequence it is necessary to examine the implications for meeting the requirements of the CDIO Syllabus. It is also important to determine if there is conflict between the CDIO Syllabus and national accreditation criteria. The authors discuss how national differences can be catered for, and argue that there is no conflict with current accreditation criteria. As a result it is suggested that the CDIO Syllabus, coupled with the CDIO Standards, can form the basis of international requirements for engineering education. Such requirements would be aspirational, and hence complementary to the minimum or threshold requirements that are emerging in the form of global accreditation criteria.
2nd International CDIO Conference, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, 13 to 14 June 2006