THE END OF DEGREE PROJECT (EDP): A MODEL IN THE BOLOGNA SCENARIO

In this paper we will show the Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (UAO) Degree Project model in the Bologna framework. We define the concept of Degree Project in the field of the Social and Juridical Sciences. In fact, there is a scanty tradition in this area in the accomplishment of works of end of career. Normally, the students have elaborated research works in the frame of methodological subjects and also they have developed works of bibliographical deepening in a concrete subject matter. On the other hand, in some universities the students have made practices. Nevertheless, none of these three activities coincides exactly with what we should define as a Degree Project.
In the frame of the EEES, the Degree Project must be a project orientated to the development of an investigation, an intervention or an innovation in the professional field. This work represents the piece of investigation, intervention or innovation more elaborated and concrete, and it gives opportunities for the personal and academic development of the student. The Degree Project can open a professional way, because the student must integrate and apply the competitions acquired along the degree. Skills like enterprise strategy, autonomy or initiative are an added value from the Degree Project.
In the UAO Degree Project we have established a list of competences for the student. Among these, we underline to identify a topic, to establish a right initial research questions, to establish rigorous aims, to carry out an initial search of documentation on a topic, to select the fundamental sources for the construction of the referential frame of the Degree Project, to organize the phases of accomplishment of the Degree Project, to present and to defend publicly the report and to communicate in a right way the information.
The aim of the Degree Project, as the UAO establishes in the academic regulation, is to determine the level of utilization of the studies contents across a practical exercise of scientific synthesis or of production of a professional project. It does not consist, so, of the production of a work directed to demonstrate the domain of the investigative tools, like in a doctorate program, if not the aim is that the student accredits that he has taken advantage of his studies. The student has to demonstrate the capability to execute the competitions acquired in his studies.