Abstract:

The Bachelor's Final Project and the Master's Final Project represent the culminating stage of university education, in which students must demonstrate autonomy, critical thinking, and decision-making ability. However, many students approach this stage with significant shortcomings: disorganisation, excessive dependence on their supervisor, insecurity in decision-making, and poor communication skills. Self-directed learning and self-regulation emerge as key competencies for students to actively and responsibly manage all phases of their work, from planning through to the evaluation of results.

Recent literature highlights the structuring role of metacognition and self-regulation in the development of competencies in higher education, consistently linking them to academic success and reduced anxiety levels. Grounded in an educational improvement project at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), this study pursues two main objectives: first, to identify the key training deficiencies perceived by students when undertaking their projects; and second, to explore the learning formats and resources they consider most effective in addressing those gaps.

A Likert-scale survey (1–5) was distributed to a sample of 124 students, and the results were analysed to define evidence-based lines of action. The findings contribute transferable knowledge that informs the design of targeted instructional strategies and support materials, fostering greater student autonomy and self-regulation throughout the different stages of academic project development.

Keywords:

Final degree Project, Higher education, Training needs, Academic autonomy, Metacognition.