**2.3 General layout of curricula**

The BME teaching programs in the Multidisciplinary School of Engineering in Biomedicine AGH University of Science and Technology follow all the Polish legal regulations, including the national standards for academic teaching set out by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2007), and the guidelines of the Bologna Process (including the Educational Credits Transfer System and Accumulation System-ECTS). The current program presented in the block diagram in Fig. 6 consists of:


as well as of an adequate representation of students. At present, the professors represent

One of the Board's tasks is to recommend to the Rector appointments for the Head and the Deputy Head of the School. The appointed Head is also President of the Board. The main responsibility of the Board is to supervise the education process, assure its highest quality, verify and, if necessary, correct academic curricula, prepare staff assignments and implement other objectives of the School. The Head also represents the MSIB in the

From the student's viewpoint, there is no organizational difference between the faculty and the Multidisciplinary School. Both have a Dean's Office, a staff of qualified teachers, a social support system and a student board. As far as education is concerned, the rights and responsibilities of the Head of the School are identical to those of a Dean, the only difference being that research is carried out in laboratories in various faculties run by individual

Since medical sciences are not represented in the AGH-University of Science and Technology, six medicine-oriented lectures (e.g. anatomy, physiology, medical deontology, history of medicine) are given by professors of the Collegium Medicum (Medical College) of the Jagiellonian University. The agreement between the universities gives students the opportunity to attend lectures and to participate in laboratory exercises in the Faculty of Medicine. This cooperation is mutually beneficial since it provides an alternative, i.e. medicine-based viewpoint, for our medical colleagues and medicine students. Unfortunately, current medical curricula in Poland do not include engineering aspects in medicine, however some lecturers from AGH-UST are among those who take part in postgraduate studies and technology-oriented teaching projects for medicine students or

The BME teaching programs in the Multidisciplinary School of Engineering in Biomedicine AGH University of Science and Technology follow all the Polish legal regulations, including the national standards for academic teaching set out by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2007), and the guidelines of the Bologna Process (including the Educational Credits Transfer System and Accumulation System-ECTS). The current program presented in the

• A single 7-semester track leading to the First (Undergraduate) Degree

• Five domain-oriented 3 or 4-semester tracks leading to the Second (Graduate) Degree

• A single 8-semester track leading to the Third Degree (Doctor's).

• Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer Science and Electronics,

• Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, and

five faculties:

medical doctors.

**2.3 General layout of curricula** 

block diagram in Fig. 6 consists of:

(Bachelor's/Engineer's);

(Master's);

• Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, • Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics,

• Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science.

University Board on par with deans of other faculties.

professors rather than in the organizational framework of MSIB.

Fig. 6. An education track block diagram for biomedical engineering at MSIB AGH-UST.

After a careful review of the needs from prospective employers' point of view, the availability of existing infrastructure and resources and a detailed study of reports from more experienced colleagues, we have decided to formulate and put into practice several rules and mechanisms that provide a broad basic education in all possible BME domains and fast adaptation of the program to the variability of an unstable, constantly developing local employment market.

A complete description of the offer consisting of 189 lectures [64 for the Bachelor's (First) degree , 104 in five domains for the Master's (Second) degree and 21 for the Doctor's (Third) degree)] is available from the MSIB web service www.biomed.agh.edu.pl (see Appendix, table 3). By way of example, we have selected two curricula for the specialization called "Emerging Health Care Technologies" taught in English for the Master's Degree and for the Doctor's Degree (PhD) studies (see Appendix, table 4) and three course sheets -syllabuses (see Appendix, table 5). Some selected themes for PhD theses may also be worth mentioning:


Full texts of these theses are available on-line from the Biomedical Engineering PhD students' web service www.embio.agh.edu.pl.

### **2.4 Program adaptation mechanisms**

In addition to the Bachelor's Degree program of a single track (for 150 students each year), various measures were implemented in order to increase the adaptation range of the proposed tracks. A high degree of flexibility, and a wide offer of elective courses involve students as partners in the educational process. This method of program organization with the essential participation of the students has an additional advantage: it helps to develop the students' responsibility and flexibility that is necessary in the difficult workplaces employing biomedical engineers.

The Second Degree (Master's) program (also proposed for 150 students per year) requires that students select one of five offered parallel tracks. Four of them are taught in Polish and oriented towards the main branches of biomedical engineering:


Fortunately, the formula of the multidisciplinary school that is based on human resources and the infrastructure of five faculties takes advantage of the support thus provided and is sufficient to comply with the requirements of high-quality teaching.

This variety of human and technological resources in the absence of institutional limitations and work contracts makes it possible to have a free hand in creating teaching syllabuses depending on the current market needs and students' interests. The creation of learning programs (new syllabuses and specialties) which comes under the authority of the Head of the faculty is also supplemented by three types of individual lines of study:


The creation of the course of study is based on quality indexes systematically collected from students, lecturers and employers1. The assessment of the quality of the learning process is regularly made by:


All the quality indexes are analyzed by the Board and are used in making the Head responsible for implementing decisions such as a face-to-face talk with the lecturer, change of the lecturer, modification in the sequence of subjects or a change in the syllabus.
