Abstract:

As it is known, the European Space of Higher Education (ESHE) has brought complex methodological changes to be applied in classrooms, focusing the emphasis on learning and evaluation based on competences and giving students a more prominent role in these processes. Among different types of competences, which must be implemented at the European Universities today, key or transversal competences have to be considered essential, due to the fact that they represent a multifunctional package of knowledge, skills and attitudes which enable everybody to pursue individual objectives driven by aspirations, participate as an active citizen in society and obtain a decent job in the labour market. In this context, the Vitoria-Gasteiz Business School has made a significant effort to define and develop transversal competences, which were previously agreed between the three centres that offer the Business Management and Administration degree of at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Nevertheless, the Vitoria-Gasteiz Business School has realized the existence of different and proper difficulties in implementing them, due to several factors, the majority of them related to the fact that this School is the smallest and the latest creation at the UPV/EHU. As well, it is true that some teachers present an insufficient involvement in the application of transversal competences, so the effective coordination to implement them is proving to be very difficult. Finally, unknowing that the significance of these competences has in their learning process, the students are reluctant to putting them into practice too. In order to overcome the above-stated difficulties, some teachers applied for an educational innovation project entitled “Enhancement of teaching team for gradual development of the transversal competences” in which the main objective is to analyse and redefine these competences taking into account the vision and perception which both teachers and students have in relation to them. This paper describes the basis, contents, objectives and achievements of the mentioned research project developed in our centre during the 2013-15 academic years.

Keywords:

Transversal competences, learning, higher education.