NEW CHALLENGES FOR INFORMATICS EDUCATION

This paper compares some key aspects in the Informatics Degree in the Institute of informatics of the Comenius University of Bratislava in Slovakia and in the Escuela Superior de Ingenieria Informatica de Albacete (ESII) in Spain. The paper describes the characteristics of both institutions, pointing out the similarities and the main differences among them. In both countries, the criterion usually used to select the students to be accepted in the Informatics Degree is only the weighted average of the Secondary School mark with the mark obtained in a University Access exam. However, there are a lot of evidences that later the academic results of the students with the highest mark in the admission are not correlated with the marks obtained in the Degree. This paper maintains that the contents of some subjects in the last years of the Secondary School should be reviewed in order to adapt the curricula of the students that later are going to study Informatics and prepare them in some fields they are going to need in the Degree. This paper also discusses the process to choose the new students for the Informatics Degree. Current method of just weighted average of the Secondary School mark gives the same importance to all the courses the students have followed at the School. However, giving more weight to some subjects that are closer to the Degree they are going to study, permits to select those students that have obtained better marks in those subjects that are later more important in the Degree. In such a way, we would be selecting the more adequate students for each Degree and so reducing the failing rate. In our opinion, it is also very important the treatment of the new students during the first year they arrive at the University, and the actions developed to help the students to make easier the inclusion process. In this way in our Faculties we apply Mentorias, Zero Courses and we had to propose the new curriculum which takes into account different quality of student's mathematical knowledge due to changes in the High School education in Slovakia. These activities will be thoroughly explained in the paper, as well. Moreover, there is a particular problem regarding the study of informatics. Namely, a high demand from the industry, which could fully employ students before obtaining the Degree. Hence we feel a luck of their motivation to study more theoretical subjects as well as a luck of time to study at all, since the most of them are employed already during their study. Finally, there are a lot of activities of coordination between the different courses of both Faculties in order to prepare a clear itinerary with well-defined curricula.