Abstract:

In the framework of the subject Chemistry of Food of the fourth year of the Chemistry University Degree, the students carry out an initiation research work. In this activity, the students perform a bibliographic search that precedes the realization of experiments in the laboratory during the practical sessions of the subject and, finally, they write a scientific paper. Therefore, students build specific and transversal skills, related to the field of research that are of great importance for the development of the Final Degree Project and, subsequently, for their incorporation into the professional life.

After four academic years, it is the propitious moment to evaluate and rethink the work done to the date. Not only it is necessary to reflect on the difficulty of novelty in itself, but it is also necessary to reflect on whether the changes made at the curricular level had the expected effect on the acquisition of competences by graduates in Chemistry. Additionally, an evaluation of the students’ ability to apply the competences developed through the aforementioned initiation research work, to solve problems of a chemical nature, either in the research area or an industrial job was done. The final degree projects, master's degree projects and the working world represent the ideal context to carry out this evaluation, since it is in this context that the student must put into practice a series of competences related to the field of research.

With this aim, different surveys were conducted to those students who had completed the subject, both in this academic year and in previous courses.

The results shown that the students who do their Final Degree Project or continue their research career doing their Master's Thesis and a Doctoral Thesis consider that the realization of this activity allows them to acquire a series of competences and tools of great utility for their research career. In fact, the best valued competences were those directly related to the scientific method and the analysis, interpretation and presentation of scientific results. A different valuation was made by those graduates with an active professional life. In this case, the use and management of instrumentation common to all analytical chemistry laboratories was the competence best regarded.

Keywords:

Final Degree Project, Chemistry, Competences, Research work.