AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITY CURRICULAR DESIGN

Curricular design on education have been experimenting continuous changes in the recent years, especially in higher education. These changes are caused by two problems, the first one is related to the study plan homogenization and the second is caused by the inclusion or elimination of subjects that shape the human dimension of people. The first problem becomes evident because of the lack of legibility and comparability of the titles, this shows a negative repercussion in employability of students/professionals in the current context of the global market, their mobility and international competitiveness. The second problem, which has become evident by the recent economic crisis, has been associated by many experts to unethical behaviours, where personal gain prevailed over every other criterion. These behaviours raised the attention on knowing if politicians, professionals and the general public are being trained in an ethical education in order to improve society as a whole. Moreover, research on the relationships between perceived integrity on business companies and the trading value of their shares in the stock market show the importance of business ethics. Since the ethics of companies are bound to the behaviour of their human resources, a proper formation on this subject should be considered on curricular design. This model aims to provide a solution to the previously discussed problems, integrating in a dynamic way university autonomy with present society requirements, while preserving the aforementioned autonomy.