AQU Catalunya presents its first Benchmark for Industrial Engineering
The document aims to guide universities in the design and assessment processes for new degrees that qualify students as professional technical or industrial engineers.

This February, AQU Catalunya published its first document on Benchmarks for Industrial Engineering This document, published to guide universities in the design and assessment of new degrees related to industrial engineering, is intended for bachelor's degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Textile Technology and Design Engineering, Industrial and Automatic Electronic Engineering, or engineering of any other denomination that qualifies students for the regulated profession of technical/industrial engineer, and also for the Industrial Technologies Engineering degree. Beyond the bachelor's degrees, it is also useful for master's degrees in Industrial Engineering or any other degree that qualifies students for the regulated profession of industrial engineer.
Benchmark for Industrial Engineering
The document is intended to serve various stakeholders for a wide range of purposes. Apart from the goal mentioned above of assessing and designing degrees in this area, it also aims to inform wider society, particularly future students and employers, about the characteristics of the study programmes and their learning outcomes. While not prescriptive and not seeking to establish a standard curriculum for all university institutions, it aims to guide them in the design and assessment of the degrees cited above. Furthermore, as it does not seek to establish specific approaches to teaching, learning and assessment methodologies, institutions may adapt it to their own context and training objectives.
Among the reference frameworks used to articulate these standards is the VSMA Framework, which focuses on validating new teaching proposals, monitoring their deployment, evaluating any modifications, and accrediting study programmes cyclically. Industrial engineering training is interdisciplinary and underpinned by a strong theoretical foundation that builds on core subjects such as physics, chemistry and mathematics and specialises in one of the industry's basic disciplines. This ensures that industrial engineers are equipped with knowledge, skills, and competencies that can be adapted to any industrial sector. From an educational point of view, this set of bachelor's and master's studies in the industrial field undoubtedly constitutes one of the mainstays of any advanced society: innovation and industrial development.