"Being", "knowing" and "doing": professionals who add up

"We live in a constantly evolving world. Many work positions of the future are still to be defined, the labor market is really changing. Therefore, it is essential to set a solid instructions of the person, allowing our graduates to adapt to different roles and responsibilities. A comprehensive, complete training is more necessary than ever," explains Unai Zalba, Deputy Director of the University's Quality and Innovation service.

For the last year, Unai has been coordinating, together with Pepa Sánchez de Miguel, director of the service, the project "teaching 360". His goal is that, in addition to the professional and scientific skills specific to each area of knowledge, University students develop the qualities that make them responsible citizens, with depth of thought, a critical spirit and an international perspective; capable of understanding their work as a service to others and to society. "The project will be approached from two levels of work. In the first, each institution must define the professional identity of its degrees (profile of graduate) and the corresponding learningmodel . In the second, a model of management of the teaching must be designed to facilitate the development of this model of learning. The first level will also be developed in partnership with the high school Core Curriculum", explains Unai.

And Pepa adds: "It is about determining the set of actions, methodologies and curricular and extracurricular activities, which make the student reach the desired profile of graduate. The cornerstone of any university is the knowledge that is transmitted to students. But it is also very important to teach the skills that enable its application and a set of vital attitudes that shape the complete professional," he says. "This is what we refer to as "being", "knowing" and "doing", the three dimensions that we understand make up a good professional", adds Unai.

In this sense, the project has two key actors: the teacher and the student. "Although each centre will define its learning model in a general way, this has to be known by the teachers, who are the ones who are going to implement this model in their subjects," explains Pepa. And just as important as involving the teachers is ensuring that the student is familiar with model from the first year. "It is essential that student understands why classroom is using a specific methodology and not another, and that they understand how all the subjects and activities that are proposed to them during the four years of their degree program are aimed at providing them with a comprehensivetraining that will enable them to face their future," she adds. "This is the best way for student to be the protagonist of their own learning".

management and quality

Another facet of this project is the elaboration of a model of management of the teaching. "It is important to define how we are going to manage this teaching: how we are going to coordinate; how the different services and units of the centres are going to be integrated," explains Unai. "And this model of management will also be a model of quality assurance," he adds. "The model of management will ensure that we review every year how the different learning models are developing, to detect weaknesses and generate improvement plans. At the University we have a culture of constant improvement in the degrees. And this is also what this project will help us to do," says Unai.

Pepa also goes a step further and emphasises that quality and innovation go hand in hand. "Innovation does not mean changing the entire methodology professor or necessarily basing the entire teaching on new technological or methodological tools. Innovation is about improving the way students learn. And for this improvement to take place, it has to be supervised by mechanisms that guarantee its quality," he says.

11 years of innovation projects professor

The Quality and Innovation Service has been promoting innovation projects for 11 years professor. Through an annual call for proposals, teachers can present their proposals in relation to one subject, or several, to improve teaching and student learning. Competitions to solve practical cases, complementary activities to encourage students' environmental awareness, work that allows them to take contact with the reality of business... The list of these projects is very long and constitutes a magnificent starting point from which to give new impetus to this project. "The learning model defined by each centre will establish the broad lines, so that these innovation projects professor with which the teachers are already working will gradually converge in this model", concludes Pepa.