Abstract:

Transversal competences are key and transferable in relation to a wide variety of personal, social, academic and work contexts throughout life (Murias, 2007; Sursock, 2010; Rieckmann, 2012). They constitute a fundamental part of the professional and training profile in most degrees (Entwistle, 2004; Andrews, 2008). These competences are characterized by being inclusive, transferable, interdependent, multifunctional, and evaluable, since they can be decomposed into learning outcomes to assess the level reached by each student.

The concern for a comprehensive training of the university student has been a relevant objective in the training policy of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Spain, for more than two decades. In this sense, the institutional project on transversal competences was formalized in the strategic plan UPV2020, which assumes it in the first of the challenges: "to advance towards training models that ensure that the students acquire the required competences to have an adequate job placement”.

The main objective of the institutional project is to accredit the level of acievement of transversal competences in UPV students, in any of the official degrees. For this, they have been integrated into all the degrees, incluiding postgraduates, to guarantee their development and acquisition during university studies.
Initially, the project established the development of 13 transversal competences that aim to synthesize a competence profile for all UPV students, guaranteeing that the reference framework of all degrees is covered.

In the follow-up of the project, a longitudinal study has been carried out with new students to find out their perception of training in transversal competences. An ad hoc questionnaire was prepared, enabled during the first fortnight of the academic year on the UPV online platform, in order to facilitate its fill out. The questionnaire has the following questions:

• Level that new students consider they have in each of the transversal competences (previously acquired in their pre-university training).
• Level of importance that each transversal competence has for their future development at a personal and academic level. Both questions have been designed to answer with a Likert scale of five alternatives for each of the competences.
• Reasons why they consider that the UPV should train students in these competences. This part has been analyzed through a qualitative analysis of the open answers.
• Information new students have about the institutional Project.
• Type of non-academic activities that students carry out and complement their transversal training.

This paper presents the results obtained in the study carried out with new students belonging to all the UPV degrees from the 2016-2017 to the 2021-22 academic year; more than 6000 surveys have been collected in this period. In general, the study has allowed us to verify that the student values that the university trains them in these competences. They consider that it is relevant for their integral formation, above all, in order to facilitate their job placement.
A review of the project has recently been presented. It maintains the spirit and foundations of the original framework, but involves a reorganization and, in some aspects, a simplification. It focuses on democratic principles and values, the Sustainable Development Goals, and national and international accreditations.

Keywords:

Transversal competences, New students, Training, Institutional project, Strategic plan.