What is EESTEC?
The Electrical Engineering STudents' European assoCiation is an
organisation of and for electrical engineering students from
universities, institutes or schools of technology in Europe that
award an engineering degree. It was founded in the Netherlands in
1986. Today more than twenty countries are members of the associ-
ation.
The primary aim of EESTEC is to promote and develop international
contacts and the exchange of ideas between electrical engineering
students. An other aim is to introduce students to the industry
and the educational system of other countries. For these purposes
several kinds of acctivities have been developed.
Activities
The electrical engineering aspects of EESTEC are expressed
through Workshops, perhaps the most important activity. During a
one week seminar lectures are presented by specialists from the
industry and universities, and discussions are conducted in small
group sessions. The subjects for example are new technologies,
special fields of electrical engineering or social aspects of en-
gineering.
The second kind of activity is the Exchange of groups of students
from different countries for about two weeks. Exchanges are help-
ful in gaining a deeper knowledge of the cultural and technical
aspects of other countries.
The third main activity is the annual conference in one of the
member countries, the EESTEC Congress. During this conference the
current affairs of EESTEC are discussed and decided upon.
Any other activity corresponding to our aims is possible within
EESTEC, for example projects or practice weeks.
The structure of EESTEC
EESTEC is an association of institutions in European countries.
Each member is represented by a National Committee. The structure
of the National Committees is not centrally controlled, so a Na-
tional Committee can either be seated at only one institution or
be an assembly of local committees situated in different institu-
tions.
The cooperation and contacts between the members are supported by
an elected Board which represents EESTEC on an international lev-
el and works on general development and strategy. The
"Newsletter", the publication of the association is published
regularly to provide a continuous information-flow between the
National Committees.
In 1993 the members of EESTEC are:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Ita-
ly, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
The advantages of EESTEC
What is the value of the EESTEC activities? A very positive as-
pect is the opportunity to cooperate in an informal manner with
other students from different countries of Europe, which often
results in international friendships. Another advantage is that
participating in the activities improves some special skills,
like communicative and organising skills and language proficien-
cy. Nowadays the university curricula do not contain any practice
in these skills. On the whole, EESTEC provides electrical en-
gineering students with a broader and more international view on
their possibilities and future responsibilities.