This paper presents the results of the first part of the Tools for Enhancing and Assessing the Value of International Experience for Engineers (TA VIE) project, launched in 2018, and outlines a contemporary understanding of global competence for engineers, as understood by European engineering companies. Striving to make engineering education more comprehensively aligned to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and thereby meeting demands from industry and society, the notion of “global competence” has attracted more and more attention from engineering schools. While there is no universally agreed on definition of global competence, the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) definition, which explicitly combines global awareness and intercultural communication competence with sustainability efforts, seems potentially well positioned to inform higher education institutions’ (HEI) global competence education. This is perhaps especially so when it comes to international student mobility, an area which is regularly seen as an important means to enhance global competence while all too often being assessed not in terms of qualitative student development, but in terms of structural indicators. However, in order to assess and improve curricula and mobility programs, the desired learning outcomes must first be specified. Based on research in five European countries (Spain, Italy, Sweden, France and Hungary), this paper details the understanding, requirements and perceived skill gaps of companies hiring engineering graduates, a first step towards improved and assessable global competence education for engineering students.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) must ensure that their graduates possess not only professional know-how, but also the global competence to address the challenges posed in the UN’s 2030 Agenda. This is especially relevant in engineering education, which plays an important role in sustainable development. These competencies are typically thought to be developed in relation to institutions’ internationalisation efforts, but reports on how this is supposed to happen are often vague or built on wishful thinking. In this article, we describe a mixed-methods investigation into how holistic global competence development as a crucial aspect of sustainable education can be systematically enhanced in higher engineering education. Following a design-based research approach, connecting theoretical and practical insights from experts and stakeholders, we present here four dimensions of such an approach. Firstly, we discuss the setup, contents, and implementation of institutional guidelines as the crucial starting point of any internationalisation strategy aiming at integrating sustainable development education and global competence development. Secondly, we stress the role of institutional diversity, and show how institutions can foster inclusive and welcoming environments. Thirdly, we suggest strategies and approaches for global competence training for students, faculty, and staff, and highlight important background considerations for enabling global competence development. Fourthly, we emphasise the importance of assessing efforts to ensure that they live up to their potential and deliver the desired outcomes. The recommendations based on the investigation summarise key considerations that all HEIs—not just those focused on engineering education—must take into account as they strive for holistic global competence development, which is a key aspect of education for sustainable development.

With the ultimate aim of finding ways to improve the systematic integration of linguistic and cultural competencies in engineering education, this paper addresses how culture and language competency education is discussed within a technical European University Alliance and how this discourse is translated – or not – into educational initiatives and activities. By doing this, we aim to put focus on the gap between a certain European Union ideology – “united in diversity” – which is at the very heart of the EU project, and the everyday practices at technical universities, where linguistic and cultural competency education are often considered as marginal activities or elective add-ons compared to the hard core of technical subjects. The paper is based on European University Alliance documents and the observations and experiences made within one alliance’s working group on cultural and linguistic training during 2020-2022. We suggest that the gap between the rhetoric of multilingualism and multiculturalism and the reality of teaching and learning within the alliance has at least two sources: a tendency to engage in magical thinking where global competence develops “spontaneously” in international settings and a tendency to avoid addressing difficult questions, e.g., what multilingualism and multiculturalism actually mean in contemporary engineering education. This paper will provide some of the crucial questions that need addressing if we want to move beyond the empty rhetoric, as well as some practical suggestions for a systematic integration of cultural and linguistic competency education into engineering education.