UNDERGRADUATE FINAL PROJECT: LEARNING STUDENTS’ OPINION

Since the year 2013-14, undergraduate students have to prepare and submit a final project (known as TFG: “Trabajo Fin de Grado”) as a requirement to finish their degree. In this paper, we have analysed the satisfaction of our students with their own work and with their TFG advisor’s work, and revealed areas of improvement of the process by means of a structured survey. The survey was addressed to the students and alumni of the following undergraduate degrees of the University of Alicante: Business & Management (ADE), Tourism, Public Administration Management, Labour relations & Human Resources, double degree in Tourism and Business & Management, and double degree in Law and Business & Management.
The survey was first prepared by the authors of this paper, all of them TFG advisors, based on the works of García & Martínez (2012) and Ferrer, Carmona & Soria (2012). Afterwards, two TFG students commented on it, which provided an interesting perspective. The final instrument was divided into four parts: control variables (degree, gender and type of essay); degree of agreement with a number of TFG aspects and features; assessment of the Faculty, learning program and advisor; and level of achievement of learning competencies. The latter three were calculated using a 5-point Likert scale.
Our results show that our students are, overall, fairly content with their own work and that of their advisors. An outstanding result is that the majority of the students have considered that the advisor had done a good job in regards to choosing a TFG topic, determining the research objectives, the writing process and preparing the final public presentation. In addition, they feel supported and adequately guided over the whole process. The most valued aspects have been the diligence and availability when answering students’ questions. It seems logical that these factors are considered essential by the students, because if the advisor is sluggish and unresponsive, the completion of the TFG will be delayed, making their work difficult.
As for the areas for improvement, TFG students think that they should receive more comprehensive and understandable information at the beginning of the year, and that the project management application in the corporate intranet, called UAproject, should be easier to use. Besides, they are aware (and we concur) that they lack training in data analysis and in practical tools for their chosen professions.