Creating a New Historical Perspective: EU and the Wider World ...

can achieve a much higher degree of understanding of their own systems, their
strengths and weakness, and or the usefulness of certain solutions used in other
countries. It is significant that on the competences to be formed, including the
overarching general competences which should be the objective of any History
studies, however circumscribed, all members of the Subject Area Group and all
those consulted are very much in agreement. The paths utilised to achieve those
ends are, however, strikingly different.
A final aspect which deserves mention is that it seems to be very useful to share
knowledge among different subject areas on how to foster, encourage and assess
the generic competences.
Generic competences
In the first phase of Tuning, a broad consultation on the importance of ‘generic
competences’ and the degree to which they are formed in existing higher education
programmes was carried out. Several thousand employers, graduates and
academics were contacted. To prepare learners adequately for employment and
citizenship in a rapidly changing world, skills and competences not traditionally
considered in university teaching must be cultivated and enhanced. Thirty
such competences were taken into account. These include ‘instrumental competences’
such as ‘capacity for analysis and synthesis’, ‘information management
skills’ and ‘problem solving’; ‘interpersonal competences’ such as ‘teamwork’,
‘interpersonal skills’ and ‘appreciation of diversity and multiculturality’; and
‘systemic competences’, such as ‘research skills’, ‘creativity’ and ‘capacity to
learn’. The Subject Area Groups examined the ways that such competences can
be formed in the course of learning/teaching activities. Further information on
this and other aspects of Tuning is available in the publications furnished on the
Tuning site.
6. Quality enhancement
The History Subject Area reference points and competences have been developed
in close synergy with the on-going debate on quality of programmes and
delivery. The possibilities of direct interaction have been particularly incisive
because members of the Subject Area Group have been able to interact with the
History Thematic Network, gathering experience in the use of Tuning tools in
programme design, delivery, monitoring and improvement. On the one hand,
in the many countries where the Bologna process was being applied, members
of the Subject Area Group were involved in drawing up new programmes based
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