Abstract:

In the context of the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Declaration, 1999), the educational outcomes of university courses are being defined in terms of competences that are to be acquired by the students in order to get their degrees. In this context, both a definition of the pedagogical content of Final Master Project in terms of competences and a systematic assessment system linked to those competences are needed. The issue of defining the educational outcomes was approached by different authors in some studies, however the question of defining a systematic approach to the evaluation of Final Master Project in terms of entrepreneurship and innovation has not been satisfactorily solved so far.

Another aspect of the evaluation has been not completely defined yet, is the ranking of generic competencies, that is, the specification of which aspects should contribute the most to the final marks assigned to the students. Such proposal of the set of generic competencies to be strongly assessed has bot been addressed yet, and most of the assessment frameworks do not consider competence-based learning.

The Master’s Theses must consist of a research project, which may be theoretical or applied, that requires the student to integrate the training that they have received over the course of the tuition program, not only in terms of the knowledge attained but also the general, cross-disciplinary and specific skills acquired, those set by the university centre to which the School is affiliated, and the courses that comprise this tuition program. Although, as a general rule, Master’s Theses are conducted in teams of at most three members the evaluation of the Thesis is independent and autonomous, both in terms of the appointed tutor and the evaluating panel. On account of the benefits that both parties may obtain, Master’s Theses can be produced jointly with research centres, institutions or companies with which the School has established a partnership framework.

The intention that animates our work is to carry out an analysis of the works of Master Theses realized in EAE Business School to classify them according to different subjects and to parameters of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Keywords:

Innovation, Master Theses, generic competencies, entrepreneurship.