Engineering education (research) in higher education institutions

The past decades the interest in Engineering Education (EE) and Engineering Education Research (EER) has been increasing all around the world. Nevertheless, educators and researchers in engineering schools that dedicate their time to this field of applied research often find themselves in a reverse flow with the most accepted and traditional career paths. Considering that engineering educators are practitioners of EE and sometimes also researchers in EER subfields, this discussion paper aims to take a snapshot of the state of the art with respect to EE and EER in higher education and the role of higher education institutions (HEI). The approach chosen was to make an exploratory study based on document research, using three main sources: Elsevier Scopus indexing service, Times Higher education university rankings and universities’ web sites. Considering the Scopus database, the time threshold was defined as 1970 to the present. Using the search-term “engineering education” it was possible to identify 60250 conference documents and 18610 journal documents. Moreover, it could be established that seven from the top 25 institutions with a higher number of journal publications were also among the top 25 HEI of the Times ranking. Additionally, in all Times Top 25 HEI some kind of organization unit dedicated to staff development could be identified, most of these with some specific organizational initiatives related to EE. Based on this exploratory study the authors conclude that EE and EER mutually benefit from each other and that the combination apparently poses no stumbling blocks to the most recognized research institutions in the world. Finally, the authors argue that this field of applied research potentially has a high impact in the advancement of engineering education.