Abstract:

Adaptation to the European higher education area has resulted in the creation of new degrees of Bachelor and Master in Spanish universities. The degrees are official if their verification reports are evaluated and approved by ANECA and the Council of universities and the titles registered in the RUCT (official national register). These verification reports include the contents of the curriculum, courses and the generic and specific competences that students should be trained. When the studies enable to develop an official recognized profession, the curriculum should also contemplate specific competencies derived from ministerial orders regulating the profession. Some universities also incorporate training in certain skills called “cross curricular competences” as a way to differentiate its graduates from others of other universities.

The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) in particular, has an institutional project that defines 13 cross-disciplinary skills which will be worked and evaluated in degrees taught and which comply with the requirements of international quality accreditation agencies of the University studies such as EUR-ACE or ABET. This approach raises the need to design activities that enable to work the competence assigned in the subjects.

This work presents the case of the optional subject "Industrial safety" of fourth the degree course chemical engineering from UPV which has assigned the "Ethical, professional and environmental responsibility" cross-curricular competency. The paper describes the background of the subject, methodology and contents and the way in which activities are designed to address the work of competency while maintaining the initial outline of the subject. The results obtained can be useful for other subjects that need to integrate this cross-curricular competency in their degrees.

Keywords:

Chemical engineering, cross-curricular competence, Industrial safety, Ethical, professional and environmental responsibility.