Transformation of an Extracurricular Project to a Student-Driven Academic Institution — Success Criteria and Benefits for Students and Faculty

All universities strive to prepare their students as well as possible for their future careers. In engineering especially, it is vital to establish a strong connection between theoretical topics like maths and physics to real and complex engineering problems. A widespread approach in engineering education is to offer students practical project modules as a mandatory part of their studies. Beyond that, some faculties include international competitions in their curricula. Although this approach is generally viewed as effective, competitions require a lot of resources, which makes them hard to sustain. We have found that it is worthwhile for students and faculty to implement more than the minimum requirements to make hands-on projects a success story. Therefore, we outline how to elevate projects to a more professional level and what benefits result from a higher degree of professionalism. Furthermore, we review the steps taken to get to that level in a best-practice manner. We illustrate that these steps also lead to enhanced employability and an improved reputation, more external collaboration partners, and closely connected alumni for the university. To support our claims regarding those benefits, we asked representatives of supporting companies and the faculty to provide testimony regarding the cooperation with the student project. Additionally, we conducted a survey among students that clearly indicates how students profit from a strong connection to the faculty.