Abstract:

Introduction:
The Final Degree Project (FDP) is a compulsory subject included in all university degrees in Spain. Every student must approve this last subject in order to obtain the final degree qualification. Its nature may vary depending on the guidelines approved for each specific university but essentially it consists of an original piece of work that the student, tutorized by a teacher, must complete to demonstrate the acquisition of specific knowledge, competencies and aptitudes reported in the study plan of each specific degree.

Methodology:
We used the information provided by the repository of the University of Granada in relation to the modalities and contents of FDP subject. This information includes not only the teaching guide of this subject in different areas, but also the FDP portfolio that reports student competencies and all the necessary regulations. After carefully revision of the documentation collected, we highlight all the limitations of the current design of this subject for both students and tutors.

Results:
In its current status, the FDP subject has several aspects that should be addressed or at least revised: the duration of the FDP project that may largely vary depending of the type of FDP chosen by the student (experimental or bibliographic). An important issue is that the authorship of the work developed exclusively correspond to the student, which ignores the work conducted by the tutor involved in each specific project. On the other hand, although the FDP subject represents 12 ECTS credits for the student, only 0.45 credits are recognized as workload for the tutor. This distribution is clearly unbalanced if we consider that most of the FDPs are designed, supervised and financially supported by the tutor.

Conclusion:
Considering all the above, we suggest that the current structure of the FDP subject should be revised in order to normalize the work developed by students and to appropriately recognize all the efforts and responsibilities assumed by the tutor in terms of ECTS credits and authorship.

Keywords:

Final Degree Project (FDP), Degree.