Learning Project Governance Through Project-Based Learning: An Exploratory Study of Student Appropriation in Engineering Education

Project-based learning (PBL) is widely used in engineering education to develop technical, methodological, and interpersonal competencies. However, project governance—roles, responsibilities, stakeholder interactions, and decision-making structures—is rarely framed as an explicit learning object, despite its centrality in professional practice. This paper examines a multi-year PBL program in Mechatronics at a French engineering school that integrates a formal governance framework built on four pillars: the reference framework, the project team, supervisors, and external clients. Rather than assessing the program's causal effectiveness, the study explores students' perceived appropriation of these pillars and their perceptions of the roles played by supervisors and external clients. A 20-item mixed-format questionnaire was completed by 60 students: 34 of 38 enrolled fourth-year students and 26 of 42 enrolled fifth-year students. Additional responses from six alumni are used for qualitative illustration. Results reveal a selective and pillar-dependent pattern of perceived appropriation. Concrete, recurrent tools are perceived as more useful than normative charters; the project team appears as the main site of perceived interpersonal transformation; external clients provide exposure to professional realism; and the supervisory pillar is the most critically evaluated. The comparison between cohorts suggests a differentiation of judgment rather than a uniform increase in satisfaction. The study contributes to understanding PBL not only as a setting for task management, but as a collaborative learning environment in which students learn to appropriate, negotiate, and evaluate a shared organizational framework. These findings point to the importance of making governance visible in action, ensuring coherence among supervisors, and deliberately leveraging external clients as drivers of professionalization.