In this paper, we report on a large-scale application of the CDIO standards, involving approximately 100 educational programs. The context is the Swedish national evaluation of its “civilingenjör” engineering degree programs made by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket, HSV).
In the paper, we first briefly describe the CDIO standards focusing on the role as a support for continuous program development. We then present the self-evaluation materials used in the HSV evaluation and account for HSV’s motives for including the CDIO standards evaluation in the self-evaluation package and for the modifications made compared to the original CDIO standards.
We then discuss the results from a survey and an interview study directed to the program managers that have applied the CDIO standards in the HSV evaluation. The questions in the survey aim to investigate the respondents’ view of the relevance, benefits, limitations and ease of use of the CDIO standards. The questions are aimed both at the overall level – the body of standards – as well as at the level of single standards.