Engineering Education: between ‘richesse de la culture’ and international equivalence

Personal views, remarks about SEFI as an organisation and trends in engineering education are the items presented in the paper. SEFI—if it did not exist it would have to be invented immediately because it contributes to the infrastructure of Europe. ‘Richesse de la culture’ is a European characteristic and, as a consequence, educational systems are different, and should be developed further to capitalise on their advantages and eliminate their drawbacks. The first decade of SEFI was that of a club of enthusiastic engineering educators, the next one should bring the transition to a society with its potential impact on a European scale. Engineering education, to day more than ever, faces permanent technological change. Continuing education, therefore, becomes more important, but initial education should be enhanced by involving students in research, by introducing more choices, for instance to include nontechnical subjects and by training innovative, flexible and communicative behaviour to make technology better understood to the public.