Attracting Prospective Engineering Students in the Emerging European Space for Higher Education

A set of outreach activities implemented by the College of Engineering of the Public University of Navarra, Spain, is described. They represent different initiatives aimed to improve recruitment of young engineers in the difficult context of declining interest in engineering and the educational changes Europe is facing nowadays. The initiatives include didactic materials and activities specifically targeted to high schools and other events aimed to increase awareness about the relevance of science and engineering in the society. During the three years the outreach program has been applied, an increase in the number of engineering students of 12.5% has been experienced, which is in contrast to the decrease of 1.6% in the number of new university students during the same period.