Biomedical engineering education - UK and Imperial College perspective

Although bioengineering has been actively studied at postgraduate level for many years in the UK and Europe, it has only been offered very recently at undergraduate level as an independent discipline. In such cases, it is normally taught as an integrated subject throughout the whole period of study. This approach enables the basic principles of mathematics, physics and engineering to be presented in a biomedical context but without compromising the rigour with which they are taught. Currently such undergraduate courses are only being taught to relatively small numbers of students. Their popularity is growing rapidly and they are attracting very bright students and many more women than have entered the traditional engineering disciplines.