Quo vadis engineering education?

The engineering student of today will become an industrial employee or researcher in the future. The university has to ensure that a graduate will be ready and able to face the societal impact and engage in an increasingly complex role in a rapidly changing technological environment. The National Academy of Engineering of the USA published two key reports, The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century and Educating the Engineer of 2010: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century. The main objective of these reports is to analyse engineering education, considering it in the global context as well. Therefore, these ideas are important for the rest of the world, including technical universities, colleges, local industry and the Lithuanian community. In Lithuania, engineering is still a popular area of study, but probably not forever. Even now, it is questionable whether popularity parallels quality education. Permanent improvements in the quality of education is the main objective of the Kaunas University of Technology (KUT), Kaunas, Lithuania, but this cannot be achieved without cooperation from local industry and the global academic community. In the paper, the author considers recent and current trends in engineering education.