Student-Centred Learning In Learning Outcomes Based Curricula

The National Qualifications Framework for higher education (NQF-HE) was introduced in Poland through an amendment to the Law on Higher Education in 2011. Learning outcomes oriented curricula, developed in most cases in cooperation with external stakeholders (employers), put more emphasis on non-technical (economic, legal, ethical, environmental, societal) aspects of engineering and the development of soft skills and entrepreneurial attitude of students. Now, the time has come to focus on implementation issues, in particular on the implementation of the concept of student-centred learning. A shift to teaching methods which more actively involve students and require interdisciplinary approach and entrepreneurship, such as Problem Based Learning (PBL) or Design Thinking (DT), has been observed at many higher education institutions. In the paper, we present the recent developments in this area at the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT). To coordinate and support these developments and in particular to emphasise the significance of business-university cooperation in engineering education, a special advisor to the WUT Rector and special team of experts have been appointed.