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The study of employability aims to analyze the skills developed by students and their relevance for obtaining a job. It is about reducing imbalances between labor supply and demand. Carrying out internships in companies has proven to be an important factor in improving employability, because it improves the capabilities of university graduates. This paper has analyzed the role of internships in improving student skills and, consequently, their role in the employability of graduates. For doing the analysis, a questionnaire has been prepared, based on the four employability dimensions derived from the theoretical analysis, which includes ítems referring to: instrumental and interpersonal skills, as well as those related to motivation and the adequacy of the internships to the student’s university training. The questionnaire has been sent to 580 Business Administration and Management (ADE) students at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEE) at the University of Barcelona (UB). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was carried out with the results of the survey. The model obtained divided the employability into the four factors previously defined according to the theory: two kind of competences, instrumental competences and interpersonal competences, student’s motivation and the adequacy of the practices. Additionally, the model shows the existence of gender differences related to the motivation of students in carrying out the internships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is twofold: first, it aims at presenting the operation of the Law Degree's final dissertation at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra; and second, it seeks to analyze the experience accumulated over the past two years and to draw some lessons that – specially with regards to its organization and coordination– may prove helpful to other institutions and universities. After a short introduction, the paper sketches the complex normative framework surrounding the course "Degree's final dissertation" at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Following this, the paper describes those constrains and initial considerations that informed its design. This brief analysis provides the necessary context to the following pages, which focus on the several stages the course includes and the main coordination activities attached to them. The paper concludes with a reflection on the main lessons that can be drawn after two years of experience and with some suggestions. Among others, three deserve special attention: first, the need to adopt a flexible, proactive, close, continued and anticipatory style of coordination to ensure the success of the course; second, the convenience to elaborate a course guide as clear and concise as possible; third, the relevance of creating a brief manual that helps professors in their tutorial activities and the ulterior evaluation of papers, particularly in those cases that involve a large number of professors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method used to allow the joint acquisition of generic skills such as teamwork, design creative proposals, select information, oral and written communication to University students from different study programs is presented in this paper. To achieve this goal, first, a project using the methodology of Project Based Learning (PBL) was designed and, second, it was tested carrying out two pilot plans which involved different numbers of students and courses. The students had the challenge of converting an episode of the television show of a famous Spanish cook (Karlos Arguiñano) into a scientific radio program. For this reason, the project was called Arguiñano Project. The radio show had to be filled with a testable scientific content and to do so students had to work collaboratively and share their own knowledge background. The project was reorganized after the evaluation of the first pilot plan and it was developed again in a second pilot project, which involved more students and allowed to compare scores between students that work under PBL and others of the same course and study program that performed a similar task but without following the PBL method. The results show that PBL-based activities have a great potential for the acquisition of generic skills and also improve the achievement of specific skills and a higher degree of satisfaction when compared to a more traditional learning method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is focused on the selfassessment trough e-rubrics. Rubrics as an instrument of self-assessment involve a process of reflection that can contribute to increase the involvement and awareness of their own achievements. Here we wanted to engage students from the design and creation of rubric through a collaborative process of building an e-rubric by the students and the teacher. In this study, undergraduate students of Pedagogy participated in an elective subject in their third year. It was developed in several stages in a semester: training for using e-rubrics, designing and construction of e-rubrics, using the e-rubric as a tool for self-assessment and filling a final questionnaire to collect their views. It's important to consider that when we work with innovative strategies of assessment, students have to know not only the features of the instrument but also they have to know the influence to improve their learning processes and they have to achieve the ability to incorporate it to their own skills as education professionals. As main result, students highlighted the importance of rubrics to guide their learning processes and to reflect about it and the capacity of rubric to predict their performance in the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the new challenges which, in the context of the European Space of Higher Education, the legal studies are facing at the present moment, specifically Roman Law. The different ways, through a teaching resource like the group tutorial classes can be very useful for this project, have been studied. Very special attention has been dedicated to its role in the preparation of the Final Project. Many competences, generic and specific, acquired during years of study must be used in his development. In consequence, from which its importance as a thermometer of the quality of the given formation and the learning actually achieved. Tutoring developed in small groups of four or five students as maximum, in accordance with the methodological structure of a seminar, increases each of the papers and allows the tutor to make a more realistic evaluation of the educational proceedings. The necessity of proposing appropriate instruments for a more efficient management of the Final Project has led us to adopt this resource, based on previous experience of innovation teaching that we have successfully been applying for more than ten years. The results obtain greatly benefit both the students, who learn to work in a cooperative way, and the tutor, who is therefore able to provide them counselling of a more integral and complete nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Law students as well as the companies that recruit recent graduates have identified a gap between what is taught in the classrooms and the actual practice of law as a professional. Although there has been much written about the transition between law school and the labor market, there is a lack of literature on how recent graduates are to acquire and develop skills to better prepare them for their entry into the labor market. Developing authentic performances and simulations, this paper presents an innovative pedagogical approach which seeks to address this issue by creating a greater synergy between what is taught in universities and the actual processes that a lawyer that has specialized in the administrative field will be undertaking. We found that students were able to build knowledge departing from their own experience, as they faced problems related to their everyday life that involved role assumption. This allowed them to develop the skills required to excel at the workplace as well as to get motivated to study law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its origins, the university's mission has been training professionals and specialists in different fields of knowledge. However, university is also responsible for educating genuine citizenship, ethically responsible and engaged to social reality. This paper contributes to discussions on the development of a new conceptualization of social entrepreneurship. Moreover, it contributes on the development of universities' curricula that explicit teaching-learning processes in social entrepreneurship. We apply the content analysis method to conduct a critical review of university degrees offered by public universities in Valencia, and analyze how students are trained in social entrepreneurship. The units of analysis are 32 degree course outlines in social and legal studies fields offered in Valencia's Public Universities. Results of our analysis show that university studies do not extend the entrepreneur perspective towards a more social and moral vision: moral and social dimensions awarded much lees importance while training is mainly focused on intellectual one. Moreover, a conducted expert team affirm that moral and social competencies of social entrepreneurship are left in the hands of hidden curriculum. In conclusion, the university curricula reproduce the scientist mentality, closed to positivist positions, which separate science as the only acceptable knowledge, and practices of morality, as subjective discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current competency-based educational models emphasize student's self-regulatory processes, through this seek to develop skills for learning throughout life and thus contribute to the continuous improvement of professional performance. Rubrics are tools for training and evaluation, which gradually promotes self-regulating process, while progressively reduces the external support. This paper poses a methodological strategy to promote the students self-regulation by the use of rubrics. Three key elements that support the learning process are discussed: reflexive practice, collaborative learning and feedback provided by peers and teachers. The design and use of rubrics in higher education demand: curriculum alignment, coordination with other subjects in the same educational section, collegial work and critical reflection about formative practices. It also pose that designed learning environments must travel from areas of greater control and certainty to areas of greater complexity and uncertainty, leading students to nearby situations to professional performance in real settings. It concludes with a series of reflections on the generation of a culture of professional education that promotes greater autonomy and responsibility of students' whit their own learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the widespread concern in society about young people's shortcomings in terms of writing skills, this article aims to analyze whether that competence is developed and assessed at University. The academic community cannot remain indifferent to this problem, so it is important to include the improvement of this skill in the academic curriculum. The development of writing skills is a general competence and it is considered, therefore, necessary for any study and any profile. Particularly in Business Administration, the acquisition of good written expression is not restricted to any course, but can potentially be developed in several of them over the degree, and the subject *Final Research Project* is one of the courses which can best frame the acquisition of this skill. Therefore, in this paper we develop an analysis of the design, organization, content and assessment of the Final Research Project in all universities of the Community of Madrid, both public and private, in which the degree in Business Administration is offered. The study was compiled with information obtained from the curriculum and the academic catalogue for the course, both of them available on the websites of the different universities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' coordination is based on a horizontal organizational structure, with the fundamental premises of voluntariness and interest in participating in joint activities in order to promote social learning networks. Thus, interdisciplinary projects or practices that play an important role in order to promote learning of and by competences in the new degrees emerge. Hence, we present this paper, whose aims, firstly, to provide a reflective analysis of the contribution of interdisciplinary practices to students' learning by competences and on the other hand, to present the evaluations and perceptions of the teachers involved in this new way of working. For this purpose, an interdisciplinary practical work is presented comprising three 3rd year subjects of the Degree in Social Education of the Faculty of Education, University of Murcia. Data have been collected by using the following tools: questionnaire (students) and the interview (teachers). The chosen research methodology was both, quantitative and qualitative in order to understand, analyze and reflect on the object of study and approach the experiences and perceptions of respondents, drawing conclusions and offering suggestions for improvement. The results show that this king of activities contributes to the acquisition of learning competences, and to the training of a competent teacher, arising as an alternative to isolated work creating an organizational culture open to networking among teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the creation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) universities have integrated their tutorial projects into their teaching and learning processes. The evaluation of the impact of these projects shows the need for their continued improvement so that they can become even more effective. After analyzing annually the results of tutoring activities in each of the six years since San Jorge University's tutoring project was implemented, a descriptive research has been carried out which analyses the appraisal of various aspects of university tutoring activities from the point of view of San Jorge University's undergraduate student. These aspects include the consideration of the university tutoring project as part of the learning process, the identification of needs that this project should cover, the most valued factors in a tutor and a number of proposals for improvement based on the experiences of other national and international universities. This paper presents a general descriptive analysis of the mentioned variables across the University. Results show that students consider professional development issues to be more important than both academic and personal development issues, close personal contact as the tutor's most widely valued aspect and personal interview as the most effective form of communicating with tutors. In addition, most valued proposals for improvement have been the incorporation of final year students as tutors (peer-tutoring) and the possibility of maintaining the same tutor throughout the whole student's stay at University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic writing in European higher education is a little explored field hidden behind fifty major language and fifty national educational systems of which it is part. The article aims at developing a perspective for studying the diversity of writing in Europe and finding a shared language for analyzing student writing. The article recaps baselines theories for the teaching of writing and reports on three important European writing traditions. The main part of the paper is devoted to three foundational conceptions for writing: The role of genres in understanding student writing, the function of writing practices for the organization of student writing and the meaning of writing competences for the teaching of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The units or training centers (ICE IDES CQUID, ELC) of the eight public universities in Catalonia, constituted as Interuniversity Group on Teacher Education (GIFD), are currently undergoing a reformulation process concerning the training activities and plans being offered to university teachers, in order to facilitate the development of their teaching activity. The rethinking of their actions is born from a common interest linking the quality of university teachers' training with coherent approaches in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This interest and concern has led the group to conduct a research study with the objective of establishing a set of standard teaching skills for the faculty staff to master, with the purpose of successfully undertaking the development of the new degree courses in line with the directives of the European Higher Education Area. This paper contains a thorough examination and analysis regarding the main features that activities and training programs aimed at teachers should include, in order to facilitate the performance of the teaching activity itself, by focusing at the work of training units or training centers, at the academic institutions where they belong, and at the related agencies, and by requesting them to update their educational tasks in order to meet the new requirements that the role of teachers demand. The aim of this work is to stimulate thought and to generate a debate on the direction that university teachers' training must follow, not only as a strategic element of the institution, but also contributing to achieve the quality objectives to which universities have committed themselves in the process of validating the new degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from a discipline-based curriculum to a more integrated one is one of the key aspects to encourage a competence-based learning.. An integrated curriculum approaches the teaching-learning processes from an interdisciplinary perspective, closer to professional practices rather than to academic tasks. In this paper we present, firstly, an international tour around the realities of integrated curricula. Secondly, we describe the design implemented in the degree of Social Education at the University of the Basque Country. This design is a real model to move from the current situation (organized according to the logic of the subjects) into another in which these intersections of curricula are made possible. Finally, we perform an initial assessment of the results, trying to point out the practical difficulties involved in the development of the model and the ways for their resolution, as well as the impressions the participants have about the process. In this sense we will like indicate that, first, we must bear in mind that the difficulties to overcome in a process of this type are numerous, diverse, and its resolution is not always in our hands. And, second, stronger obstacles in our experience are being in the one hand, deal with the effects of our own relational history in the center and on the other, seek consensus between different thoughts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of higher education the training and development of the teachers' quality is probably one of their biggest challenges. To address it rationally we must first determine the nature of the teacher's role within a highly complex and demanding environment such as the twenty-first century and then develop the basic program and strategy of its management. It is also a key element, determining the characteristics of the trainers who will boost these processes. In our paper we analyze the preferred spaces that make up the performance of the teachers and the nature of their relationships. From this study we derive the competencies associated with the work of the teacher and from them, we try to determine the nature of the approaches for use in teacher training college and the role that their facilitators must play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Doctoral education has undergone, in recent years, a revolution paralleling changes in modern society. In the last two decades, the world has witnessed a wave of doctoral education reforms driven by government funding cuts, commercialization, rationalization, internationalization, quality assurance, as well as by increasing demands from employers and doctoral graduates to train doctoral students for an ever-changing competitive job market, which goes beyond the walls of academia. With an historical view of doctoral education at international level, and paying special attention to the process of Bologna taking place in Europe, this paper investigates the different models of doctoral education developed, as well as how its initial traditional conceptualisation has evolved and diversified, driven by educational policy and changes to higher education funding, into new models of doctoral education relevant to our current society. It discusses, from an international perspective, how different higher education institutions are approaching the task of equipping doctoral students with transferable or generic skills, as well as specific skills, in order to educate active and sustainable researchers for the competitive international knowledge based societies of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lessons learned from the past make clear, firstly, that the practicum, as well as a core subject of great significance and relevance for future teachers, is a strategic period of the professional socialization process. Secondly, that the practicum provides students with an experience of great educational potential from which one can and must build the professional knowledge and competencies required for the teaching. However, despite the efforts made in recent years to increase the professionalism of teachers from the university practical training, there are still deficiencies that hinder the exploitation of this formative stage. Assuming that the practical training received during the degree course will largely determine the effective performance of the teaching profession, we think this is a relevant issue at this time of change that the University lives, especially, when trying to increase the quality of the practicum and to overcome its limitations. The present paper supports this premise, looking deeply into the study of two indicators that, according to the literature, help to understand the practicum better and are very useful for its optimal development as a valuable professional learning space: to clarify which the professorial functions and tasks that students can and must do and which the practical knowledge to acquire during their stay in the practicum centers are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current social, cultural and technological context along with the design of the new degree in Primary education and Infant requires a reflection on how the training of new teachers should be and which skills would enable them to successfully adapt to the present demands. In the Information and Communication Society it becomes essential to change the roles and scenarios of teaching and learning to ensure the training of competent individuals, i.e., able to apply knowledge in a satisfactory manner. Teachers play an important role in the education of future generations under this approach and, therefore, they are the key to facilitate adaptation to changing times. Hence teacher training becomes crucial and the practicum period constitutes a privileged situation to develop competences associated to the new professional profile of teachers. In the present work a variety of people related with these competences (Practicum tutors in educational centers, researchers and university tutors, senior, graduate students… collaborated with us to outline a training plan stemming from the conclusions of the investigation. The main aim of the study is to determine the consistency between the current demands of active teachers in exercise and the real offer provided from university. This paper shows results of content analyses over the competences described for teacher training degrees as a first step of further analyses to be accomplished by the different agents previously mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]