ADAPTING THE 3-YEAR DEGREE IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ENGINEERING TO THE NEW EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION FRAMEWORK

Traditional 'short cycle' degrees, such as the degree in Industrial Design Engineering, currently face a fresh challenge in the new European Higher Education Area (EHEA) that could improve students' education in the future. The new degree in Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering will be more complete from the student's learning perspective as it will last four academic years instead of the three of the present format. Furthermore, the contents of this new degree will be similar to those of the old degree, but more focused on competences. However, the various pilot projects carried out in recent years in the old degree course suggest that students' dedication is below teachers' foreseen ideal planning. This disparity may come about through teachers' planning and through the way students organise the time they set aside for studying. All in all, this is the first problem to overcome when it comes to designing and planning the new degree. The present article aims to study and analyse this situation with the data obtained from the various European harmonization pilot projects.