Final Report Pilot Project - Relaciones Internacionales de la ...

strategies (portfolio, tutorial work, course work…) as well as taking
into consideration situational learning.
Finally, different ways of participating in education (full time, part
time…) changing contexts and diversity also affect the pace or rhythm
at which individuals and groups can take part in the educational
process. This also has an impact not only on the form and structure of
programme delivery but in the whole approach to the organization
of learning, including more focused programmes, more short courses,
more flexible course structures, and more flexible delivery of teaching,
with the provision of more guidance and support. 4
3. Competences, the search for quality and the enhancement
of employability and citizenship
In the Salamanca Convention 5 quality was considered as a
fundamental foundation, the basic underlying condition for trust,
relevance, mobility, compatibility and attractiveness in the European
Higher Education Area.
While compatibility, mobility and attractiveness will be dealt with in
relation to the creation of the European Higher Education Area, it is
important to look briefly into the role of education by competences,
relevance of degree programmes as indicators of quality.
Mutual trust and confidence have been distinctive features of
European cooperation. These are intimately linked with transparency.
So is quality, which could be related with transparency of purpose, of
processes and of outcomes. 6 In each of the three, the reflection and
the identification of academic and professional competences may add
an aspect of quality and consistency.
Relevance in the context of the Salamanca Convention relates
particularly to employability, which needs to be reflected in different
ways in the curricula «depending on whether the competences
acquired are for employment after the first or the second degree.»
Employability, in the perspective of lifelong learning, is considered as
best served through a diversity of approaches and course profiles, the
flexibility of programmes with multiple exit and entrance points and
the development of generic competences.
4 Thomas Edward, 2000.
5 EUA, 2001.
6 Willams Peter, 2002.
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