UNIVERSITY AND CONTINOUS ENGINEERING EDUCATION – PERSPECTIVES ON INTEGRATING STUDENTS

Practical and relevant competence ready to apply in an industrial setting is of crucial importance for University Engineering Education (UEE). However, what is considered as industrial relevant knowledge and skills are changing in an increasing pace and the gap between the research front and application in industry is decreasing. Within manufacturing industry, engineers must be able to jointly optimize the design and operation of manufacturing systems and products, transferring newest research, knowledge, and technology into the business at fast pace. Continuous Engineering Education (CEE) commonly involves development of theoretical skills together with the practical work in a company setting. In this paper, learning activities comprising both CEE and UEE students are studied. By mixing students from the two groups potential benefits could be achieved within each group. The purpose with the paper is to describe how learning activities integrating CEE and UEE can be achieved to strengthen the CDIO goals as well as exploring the benefits and challenges related to the mixed student group. Learning activities combining the student groups were studied in 4 CEE courses. Several types of learning activities gathering the student groups were identified including project work in industrial settings, lecture discussions, and project presentation seminars. Challenges identified related to e.g., the differences in background knowledge and skills in the areas affecting the design of project works as well as practical factors such as scheduling.