GRAPHIC EXPRESSION IN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: DIFFERENCES IN A COMMON FRAMEWORK OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Introduction:
Sorbonne joint declaration (1998) was the first common knowledge framework, which included autonomy for each University, Faculty, Department and professor. In 1999 the Bologna Declaration emerged, which determined the establishment of a European Higher Education System before 2010.
This reform affected the subjects of all the university degrees. Some of them have also been affected by the rapid progress and development of computer technology, such as the case of Graphic Expression

Objective:
The objective of this research is to compare the presence and scope of the Graphic Expression subjects in the Engineering Degree in Industrial Design and Product Development from two Universities: University of A Coruna (UDC) and University of Cadiz (UCA).

Method:
A documental research has been carried out through the official teaching guides of the subjects related to Graphic Expression, which have been downloaded from the websites of both UDC and UCA.

Results:
The presence of Graphic Expression in the Engineering Degree in Industrial Design and Product Development is similar at both Universities: 7.5 per cent at UDC and 8.75 per cent at UCA. The 66.6 per cent (both UDC and UCA) take into account of the acquisition of the ICT competence. However, at the UDC, only a 33.3 per cent refers to assessment strategies to check whether this competence is acquired, while at the UCA shows a 66.6 per cent.

Conclusions:
It is inconceivable that once there has been an agreement to unify at the international framework the Higher Education purpose, the study plans are so different within the same degree and from the same country, so we should question ourselves about the aforementioned autonomy of each University, Faculty, Department and professor.

Moreover, Graphic Expression is a fundamental subject in engineer and architecture degrees, in which the use of new technologies for teaching should be unavoidable.