Abstract:

The Bologna Process has led to various reforms in Higher Education, aimed at adapting the university to the new social reality, in terms of technical training and teaching methodologies, structure of degrees and quality of learning processes, and at the level of student employability through the acquisition of transversal skills, which are increasingly demanded by companies. Following these guidelines, the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has launched many initiatives that have favored the modernization of its Degrees and Masters, the introduction of new technologies in learning processes, as well as the creation of an ambitious institutional project for the development and evaluation of the 13 transversal skills defined at UPV.

In this context, this paper describes the work performed in the last year within the Teaching Innovation project “Development of generic skills to promote student excellence” by the team of Innovation and Educational Quality (EICE) GRIPAU at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). GRIPAU is a multidisciplinary team of eight teachers from different areas of knowledge, such as Telecommunication, Biotechnology, Physics and Agricultural Engineering, focused on promoting innovation and improving the quality of learning in Higher Education. In this paper GRIPAU has implemented a teaching methodology that facilitates the acquisition of different transverse skills by students, allowing progress towards excellence, understood from the point of view of their integral development. Pilot experiences have been conducted to develop transverse skills in subjects of different degrees, establishing a common pattern of performance. A preliminary study focus on determining the starting level of students has been carried out for each skill. Next, students have been given appropriate guidelines to develop each skill. Finally, students have been informed about the degree of accomplishment and the level of excellence achieved after completing the subject. The result of these experiences constitutes a set of good practices for other teachers interested in working transverse skills in a structured and consistent way.

Keywords:

Higher education, transverse skills, excellence, motivation, emotional inteligence, self-reflection.