In this article, the authors report on a large-scale application of the Conceive – Design – Implement – Operate (CDIO) Standards, involving approximately 100 educational programmes. The context is the Swedish national evaluation of its civilingenjor engineering degree programmes undertaken by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Hogskoleverket, HSV). The authors first briefly describe the CDIO Standards focusing on their role as a support for continuous programme development. The authors then outline the HSV evaluation process and account for HSV’s motives for including the CDIO Standards evaluation in the self-evaluation package and the modifications made compared to the original CDIO Standards. The results are presented from a survey and an interview study directed to those programme managers who have applied CDIO Standards in the HSV evaluation. The questions in the survey are aimed at investigating respondents’ views of the relevance, benefits, limitations and ease of use of the CDIO Standards. The questions are targeted at both the overall level – the body of standards – as well as at the level of single standards.