Abstract:

As the main objective of the Bologna Process since its inception in 1999, the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was meant to ensure more comparable, compatible and coherent systems of higher education in Europe. It has brought in a change in the role that students have in Higher Education institutions, namely the student’s development of a much more active role in his/her learning process.

Now that the new degrees are being implemented, it is of the utmost relevance to know from the opinion that our students have in regards to this system, as well as which features of either system, present and past, are preferred. Considering this, this research aims to analyze the opinion that the students of the subject FEE “Fundamentos de Economía de la Empresa” (Fundamentals of Business Economics), which is being offered in three degrees at Univesity of Alicante: ADE (Business Administration and Management Studies), DADE (Law and Business Administration and Management Studies), and TADE (Tourism and Business Administration and Management Studies). This subject was first taught with the EHEA parameters in the year 2010-2011, in the year when the new degrees were implemented at the University of Alicante, although it has been a part of the ADE syllabus since its inception, almost 20 years ago.

We would like to find out whether there are any perceived differences between the teaching methodologies of the EHEA and the traditional system, as a whole and for each degree. To do so, and to explore the degree of satisfaction that our students have with certain aspects of the subject, a survey was carried out through the university’s virtual campus platform. Out of the 828 students enrolled in FEE in the new degrees of ADE, TADE and DADE, 456 answers were finally obtained (a response rate of 55%).

Our results show that students still favor certain aspects pertaining to the traditional teaching methodologies, such as: non-compulsory attendance to office hours, no public exposition of assignments, no inclusion of class participation in the final assessment, etc. As for the level of satisfaction, students are, in general, quite satisfied with the subject, and more so those attending TADE and DADE tan ADE. Furthermore, the highest levels of satisfaction are given to the teaching work, to their learning achievements, and to the degree of adequacy between the teaching materials and the class lectures.