Flexible Modular Educational Programme in Engineering

The paper describes the structure and the aims of a new modular educational programme in Manufacturing Engineering (ME) which will be developed in the scope of a European project and implemented in the Tunis College of Sciences and Techniques (ESSTT). Today, Tunisia looks forward to a high technology transfer. One of the national projects, that have a great effect on the Tunisian national economy, is the “modernisation of Tunisian industry”. To achieve this programme in a consistent way, it is essential to prepare a new generation of engineers that can cope with the latest advances in the technological aspects related to industry. For the development of a new modular educational programme in ME for the Tunisian bachelor and continuing education, which is based on the Bologna process, a new project has been initiated in 2007. It has been granted by the EU Programme TEMPUS and aims to establish and improve ME curricula for manufacturing engineers. The institutes from universities and the industry sector in Sweden, Germany, Poland, and Tunisia are partners of this project. The central activity is to construct the study plan for the modular curricula in ME, develop the new curricula of the courses, teaching materials in English language, and methodologies. Part of this also includes the updating of skills of teaching staff and technicians by training courses at the partner universities, on-site training, workshops and seminars, and establishing new ME laboratories.