Submit to Administrative Sciences Review for Administrative Sciences Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Administrative Sciences (ISSN 2076-3387).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2021) | Viewed by 17895

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Guijarro-García

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Research Department, ESIC Business & Marketing School, 46023 Valencia, Spain
Interests: innovation; education; ICT; marketing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Maria Arnal-Pastor

E-Mail
Guest Editor

ESIC Business and Marketing School, Valencia, Spain

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The competence-based approach has introduced a paradigm shift into higher education institutions. Contents are no longer the focus, competences are now the corner stone. This implies a profound methodological change and requires new teaching approaches and practices, as well as assessment tools and procedures (Marsh, 2014; Rust, 2007; Berdrow, 2010). All in all, the competence-based approach implantation is very challenging, as there are many factors from different natures hindering its implementation (González, 2014).

From a graduate’s employability perspective, companies are also focusing on graduates’ soft skills and competences to hire them. There is a gap between high education curriculum and employers’ requirements (Perera, 2017). Therefore, to promote student’s employability collaboration between universities and companies is necessary.

Objective of the Special Issue

The aim of this Special Issue is to create a space for reflection and discussion on the topic of Competences in Higher Education. It is intended to present different points of view on this field; therefore, authors from different disciplines, such as education, psychology, social sciences, and other disciplines, where competences in higher education programs are considered (business, management, etc,), are invited to submit their papers. Studies that conduct critical theoretical analyses, comparative observations, empirical testing, and longitudinal case investigations related to the Special Issue are particularly encouraged and welcome.

Topics to be discussed in the Special Issue could relate, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Higher education outlook and challenges
State-of-the-art of higher education research
Factors hindering competence approach implantation in higher education institutions
Innovative experiences of successful competence approach implantation
Competences’ evaluation tools
Competences promoters of graduates’ employability and employers’ demands from graduates
How to improve students’ soft skills: resources, methodologies, approaches, and so on
Gap between graduates’ skills and employers’ requirements
University–enterprise collaborations
Teaching strategies for competency-based learning.

Dr. Maria Guijarro-García
Dr. Maria Arnal-Pastor
Guest Editors

References

Berdrow, I., & Evers, F. T. (2010). Bases of competence: An instrument for self and institutional assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(4), 419-434. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/02602930902862842.

Gonzalez, J. M., Arquero Montaño, J. L., & Hassall, T. (2014). The change towards a teaching methodology based on competences: A case study in a Spanish university. Research Papers in Education, 29(1), 111-130. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/02671522.2012.745895

Marsh, S.J., Bishop, T.R. (2014), Competency modelling in an undergraduate management degree program. Business education & Accreditation, Vol. 6, No 2

Perera, S., Babatunde, S. O., Pearson, J., & Ekundayo, D. (2017). Professional competency-based analysis of continuing tensions between education and training in higher education. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 7(1), 92-111. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1108/HESWBL-04-2016-0022

Rust, C. (2007). Towards a scholarship of assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(2), 229-237. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1080/02602930600805192

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Administrative Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Competences
Soft skills
Competences evaluation
Employability
Teaching methodologies

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

19 pages, 2396 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Festival of Audiovisual Micro-Stories in Psychology (Microfest): An Innovative Teaching Project for Students of Audiovisual Communication and Journalism

by Rebeca Bautista Ortuño, Beatriz Bonete-López and Raquel Lorente-Martínez

Adm. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 120; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/admsci11040120 - 20 Oct 2021

Viewed by 1735

Abstract

Introductory psychology courses can be demotivating for students of social sciences degrees such as Audiovisual Communication and Journalism. Although the importance of this subject is more than justified, it is essential to design and apply innovative strategies that stimulate the teaching–learning process among first-year students, so that, through activities other than traditional lectures, their interest in behavioural sciences is aroused and they understand the importance of this subject for the future development of their professional careers. The aim of this paper is to present MICROFEST, a PIEU-UMH teaching innovation project, which has been applied as part of the continuous evaluation of students of the Fundamentals of Psychology course, taught in the first year of the Audiovisual Communication, Journalism and Joint Honours degree programmes at the Miguel Hernández University, during the 2020/21 academic year (n = 167). Through a format similar to that of a short film festival, an activity was proposed that involves the development of a series of sequential tasks aimed at creating, in pairs, a fictional audiovisual micro-story that addresses content or a theme directly related to psychology. The results obtained after the implementation of the project during the four months of the course show that the students of the three degree programmes presented a high level of performance in this part of the course, have favourable attitudes towards it and valued the initiative very positively. The indicators of satisfaction with the project were found to be good predictors of motivation towards the subject as a whole. Thus, continuance of the design and application of teaching innovation strategies that favour the teaching–learning process is recommended, and students’ satisfaction and attitudes toward it. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 4102 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Business Methodology for the Application in University Environments of Predictive Machine Learning Models Based on an Ethical Taxonomy of the Student’s Digital Twin

by Luis Miguel Garay Gallastegui and Ricardo Francisco Reier Forradellas

Adm. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 118; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/admsci11040118 - 19 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3449

Abstract

Educational institutions are undergoing an internal process of strategic transformation to adapt to the challenges caused by the growing impact of digitization and the continuous development of student and labor market expectations. Consequently, it is essential to obtain more accurate knowledge of students to improve their learning experience and their relationship with the educational institution, and in this way also contribute to evolving those students’ skills that will be useful in their next professional future. For this to happen, the entire academic community faces obstacles related to data capture, analysis, and subsequent activation. This article establishes a methodology to design, from a business point of view, the application in educational environments of predictive machine learning models based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), focusing on the student and their experience when interacting physically and emotionally with the educational ecosystem. This methodology focuses on the educational offer, relying on a taxonomy based on learning objects to automate the construction of analytical models. This methodology serves as a motivating backdrop to several challenges facing educational institutions, such as the exciting crossroads of data fusion and the ethics of data use. Our ultimate goal is to encourage education experts and practitioners to take full advantage of applying this methodology to make data-driven decisions without any preconceived bias due to the lack of contrasting information. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 458 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Closing the Gap between Graduates’ Skills and Employers’ Requirements: A Focus on the Strategic Management Capstone Business Course

by Meredith E. David, Fred R. David and Forest R. David

Adm. Sci. 2021, 11(1), 10; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/admsci11010010 - 26 Jan 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6156

Abstract

Strategic management has long been the capstone course for business majors at most colleges and universities globally. As originally designed, the capstone course sought to teach students an array of skills and tools needed to actually perform strategic planning, primarily through integration and application of functional business concepts and techniques. Times have changed, however, and business schools have come under scrutiny regarding their ineffectiveness in developing graduates’ skills commensurate with employers’ requirements. Such criticism is justified as academics teaching the capstone business course have partitioned their instruction efforts to focus increasingly on theory rather than practical applications. After a pertinent evaluation of current academic research, we illuminate how and why increased focus on practice is needed in strategic-management pedagogy. We delineate how the once well-designed business capstone course has evolved into a course that too often fails to impart practical competencies to graduating students. To facilitate closing the gap between graduates’ skills and employers’ requirements, we present a strategic management pedagogical model designed to promote student learning and development of hard and soft skills related to actually doing strategic planning. The proposed model can help reduce the gap between graduates’ skills and employers’ requirements with the intended purpose to provide increased interest for teaching practical tools that were developed by practitioners. Such tools include the BCG matrix, developed by the Boston Consulting Group, and the Internal-External (IE) portfolio matrix derived from the General Electric (GE) Business Screen developed by Jack Welch, former CEO of GE. The proposed model also reveals the process of including both internal and external aspects into strategic decision making as evidenced by countless organizations performing Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) analyses. The proposed model significantly enhances previous theory-based approaches for teaching the capstone strategic-management course. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 409 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Competence Development and Employability Expectations: A Gender Perspective of Mobility Programmes in Higher Education

by Francisca Rosa Álamo-Vera, Lidia Hernández-López, José Luis Ballesteros-Rodríguez and Petra De Saá-Pérez

Adm. Sci. 2020, 10(3), 74; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/admsci10030074 - 14 Sep 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3333

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of study-abroad programmes in higher education by examining how students’ participation can foster competence development and employability expectations. Our research focuses on the acquisition of competences through the international mobility programme Erasmus+ of 191 students of an undergraduate programme in tourism, considering the different perceptions of male and female students. Our results confirm that five out of the six competences which students develop through Erasmus+ mobility have a positive and significant influence on their employability expectations. Our findings also confirm that male and female students have different perceptions concerning the influence on their employability expectations of those competences acquired during their experience studying abroad. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

13 pages, 3144 KiB

Open AccessReview

Towards an Integrated Case Method in Management Education—Developing an Ecosystem-Based Research and Learning Journey for Flipped Classrooms

by Jan-Philipp Büchler, Gregor Brüggelambert, Haijing Helen de Haan-Cao, Roger Sherlock and Asta Savanevičienė

Adm. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 113; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/admsci11040113 - 12 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2267

Abstract

In the field of management science and business administration, the case method is gaining ground in research and in teaching. Case studies support on the one hand exploratory research and on the other hand problem-based teaching. However, we find that case research and case teaching remain unchained in management study programs and propose to close this gap. We identify an untapped potential of boosting the case method by integrating case-based research and teaching into a discovery and learning journey of applied science. We suggest embedding the “integrated case method” (ICM) in the ecosystem of universities, with the aim of enhancing and intensifying the knowledge transfer between business and the higher educational sector, thereby achieving better learning objectives in higher education. As a result, this approach enables the development of a high level of contextual intelligence and thus helps to avoid the fallacies of teaching based on uniform theoretical content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions)

► Show Figures