Biomedical engineering (BME) education was started in Europe at approximately the same time as in the United States. However, it grew at a slower pace, and its undergraduate and graduate programs, its research orientation, and its relationship with industry and hospitals developed differently, exhibiting even less uniformity than in the United States. This report focusses on the programs of Central Europe, and compares them with the system in the United States. The consequences for the international job market in BME are discussed including the envisioned influence of the impending unification of the European Community in 1993.