Biomedical Engineering Education in Europe: A 30 Years Review

The aim of this work is to perform a survey of the BME educational programs offered in Europe today, compare them with the situation ten and twenty years ago and identify potential trends and approaches. The results demonstrate the exploding growth of the field with the number of graduate and postgraduate study programs offered, to approximately double every 10 years. According to our findings today across Europe 182 Universities offer 344 BME educational programs, of which 115 are Undergraduate offering BSc degrees, and 229 postgraduate programs, 175 of them offering an MSc degree and 54 PhD degrees. The Clinical engineering programs are still less than ten, but their number is increasing. In conclusion BME education is getting a leading role in engineering studies, almost everywhere in Europe. However, harmonisation of studies is necessary for the advancement of the BME/CE profession. This should come out from a wide acceptance, of a consensus-based agreement on a generic core curriculum, that will facilitate a worldwide opening of the BME job market, through mutual recognition of the competencies acquired.