Mapping The Engineering Education Research Landscape Across Europe

The growth of Engineering Education Research (EER) has led to claims about it becoming a globally connected field of inquiry. This paper presents data on the development of EER within seven European countries, with the aim of contributing towards understanding of the field. Data was collected from participants of a workshop held at the SEFI 2022 Annual Conference which was entitled “Mapping Engineering Education Research in Europe”. Participants were asked to comment on the presence of formal research groups and PhD Programmes, as well as incentives and funding opportunities within the context. In most countries, there was a reported absence of formal EER groups and EER PhD programmes and in some cases, PhDs focusing on EER were included within general science and engineering programmes. In most cases incentives were associated with teaching awards and interventions and funding opportunities appeared to be small and isolated. In few cases was EER considered to be as valued as disciplinary research. The overall portrait that emerges from the data collected suggests that EER within European countries does not benefit from a national support infrastructure, but rather is typically carried out by individuals or small groups of researchers.