RETHINKING AND REDEFINING TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCES: THE EXAMPLE OF THE BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT DEGREE AT VITORIA-GASTEIZ BUSINESS SCHOOL (UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY)

As it is known, the European Space of Higher Education (ESHE) has brought complex methodological changes to be applied in classrooms, focusing its emphasis on learning and evaluation based on competences and giving students a more prominent role in these processes. Among the different types of competences which must be implemented at the European Universities today, key or transversal competences must be considered essential due to the fact that they represent a multifunctional package of knowledge, skills and attitudes which enable everybody to pursue individual objectives driven by aspirations, participate as an active citizen in society and obtain a decent job in the labour market. In this context, the Vitoria-Gasteiz Business School has made a significant effort to define and develop transversal competences which were previously agreed upon between the three centres that offer the Business Management and Administration degree of at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Nevertheless, the Vitoria-Gasteiz Business School has realized the existence of different and proper difficulties in implementing them due to several factors, the majority of which are related to the fact that this School is the smallest and the newest one at the UPV/EHU. Additionally, it is true that some teachers present an insufficient involvement in the application of transversal competences, so effective coordination of their implementation is proving to be very difficult. Finally, unknowing the significance of these competences in their learning process, the students are reluctant to put them into practice. In order to overcome the above-stated difficulties, some lecturers applied for an educational innovation project entitled "Enhancement of teaching teams for the gradual development of the transversal competences" whose main objective is to analyze and redefine these competences taking into account the vision and perception of both lecturers and students in relation to them. This paper describes the basis, contents, objectives and achievements of the aforementioned research project developed in our centre during the 2013-15 academic years.