Spanish Higher Education System Research Articles

Sustainability Education in the Spanish Higher Education System: Faculty Practice, Concerns and Needs

This article presents the results of the EDINSOST project in relation to the university faculty’s practice concerns and the need to embed sustainability education in the Spanish Higher Education system. Four questions were devised to determine (1) which conceptions the university faculty has about sustainability in the context of the Spanish higher education (2) what sustainability competencies the university faculty holds (3) the ways in which sustainability teaching strategies are implemented and (4) the ways in which practical coursework related to sustainability is undertaken in a Spanish university context. The methodology that was applied was comprised of a discourse analysis of faculty focus groups. To that end, a category system and a focus group implementation protocol were designed and validated, as well as processes of construct elaboration based on the analysis of the focus groups’ discourses. Among the most relevant contributions stemming from the research questions regarding the faculty’s assumptions was the evidence that the holistic conception of sustainability is not addressed in all its dimensions and the environmental dimension is overemphasised. The need for training to teach sustainability competencies and the faculty’s lack of awareness were also identified. As far as sustainability teaching strategies are concerned, project-based learning prevails, with service-learning emerging as the most effective strategy, even though its application is hindered by faculty training gaps. Finally, the absence of sustainability in teaching guides and study plans and the scarce institutional support for establishing sustainability as a strategic subject in the university were significant findings.

Relevance of Skills in Total Quality Management in Engineering Studies as a Tool for Performing Their Jobs

The Spanish higher education system needs to adapt to the requirements of the European Higher Education Area and to this end, it is necessary for higher education institutions to improve the quality of university education, leading to an increase in competency-based learning activities aimed at developing the skills of graduates. Since university graduates face a large number of requirements when entering the labour market, they need to develop and constantly update the appropriate skills to carry out their work properly. This paper aims to address two fundamental questions. First, do engineering graduates need acquired skills in Total Quality Management (TQM) to perform their jobs successfully? Secondly, which job profile requires the highest level of Total Quality Management training and knowledge? We carried out different multivariate statistical analyses using a sample of engineering graduates who had been in the labour market for two years. The results show that knowledge of this type of management philosophy is necessary for adequate job performance. The job profile requiring the highest level of skills in TQM is described.

Dealing with heterogeneity: An analysis of Spanish universities

Universities are highly dependent on regulatory frameworks, the geographical setting as well as on requirements for the creation of the different outputs they pursue. As a result, universities are heterogeneous organizations. This study analyses universities’ heterogeneity in Spain. By using a dataset from the Spanish higher education system, we model the objective function of universities and investigate which factors help explain universities’ performance, in terms of the three missions that they mostly perform (teaching, research and technology transfer). Also, a cluster analysis is performed to categorise Spanish universities. The findings contribute to better understand the different behaviours shown by universities. The findings underline the heterogeneity of Spanish universities: while some universities focus more on formation (teaching) goals, other universities excel at disseminating knowledge through different scientific outputs. The study concludes with a detailed inter- and intra- group analysis.

Translation and interpreting graduates under construction: do Spanish translation and interpreting studies curricula answer the challenges of employability?

ABSTRACTSix years after the adoption of the Bologna Process by the Spanish higher education system, it seems necessary to evaluate to what extent the ‘employability goal’ set in the Bologna Declaration has been accomplished in our country, particularly in the Translation and Interpreting (T&I) curricula. With this objective in mind, the purpose of this paper is, first, to analyse whether the ‘practical components’ of employability are embedded in the T&I curricula in Spanish Universities, and then, to compare the perception of ‘employability skills’ in a sample of final-year undergraduates (professionals-to-be), employers and graduates. To collect these data, three different questionnaires were designed in order to identify the most relevant skills for an increasingly competitive market and to provide further information on the additional training tertiary graduates are still required to be considered fit-to-work professionals. The results obtained will shed light on whether current practices in the training of T&I students bridge the gap between academic studies and the challenges of the professional market.

Research performance and teaching quality in the Spanish higher education system: Evidence from a medium-sized university

This paper studies the relationship between research performance and teaching quality in the context of the Spanish university system. We investigate whether there is a relationship between being an active researcher and teaching quality of college professors in Spain. We use a data set from the University of Extremadura, which contains information on teaching evaluations and research performance over a ten year period (from 2001–2002 to 2011–2012). Our results suggest that, on average, professors who are more involved in research obtain better results in their teaching evaluations. We also suggest that this positive link between research and teaching is non-linear, as we find a larger improvement in teaching quality from additional research at lower levels of research intensity. Additionally, we show that the relationship between teaching and research is not constant along the distribution of teaching scores, and that the teaching quality of professors in the lower quantiles is much more related to their research intensity than that of professors in the top quantiles.

Precios públicos universitarios en España: incidencia distributiva y simulación experimental de una estructura progresiva a partir de la experiencia italiana

The spanish higher education system has introduced significant changes in its financing system in recent years, mainly through increases in public fees paid by students. These increases were made basically by following several permanence criteria, which differ depending on the autonomous region the university belongs to, as well as the area of knowledge of the Degree. However, in general terms, this increase is linear in terms of income, that is, all students pay the same public fees regardless of the income of their home/household of origin. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact, in terms of equity, of the current system of public university fees (linear) on the income of Spanish households, and compare the results with the Italian system (progressive in the collection). In addition, we propose to simulate the results of applying a progressive structure similar to the Italian model for the Spanish case. The data used in this analysis come from the Household Budget Survey for the Spanish case, and its equivalent in Italy for the Italian case. The results turn out to be somewhat unexpected, with regards to the theoretical approach of each system: the Spanish system turns out to be more progressive than the Italian one. It can be observed in the simulations of alternative price policies, where an increase in prices proportional to the ability to pay is established (especially by copying the Italian system or reconsidering the situation of the Spanish system with vertical equity criteria) that they manage to give a great degree of progressiveness and redistribution to the system.

The impact of introducing foreign language requirements on the Spanish higher education system: The case of Córdoba University

AbstractThe requirement that students achieve accredited foreign language proficiency at B1 level in order to graduate from university or enrol for some postgraduate courses has prompted changes in language teaching in higher education in Spain. Given the clearly ineffective tuition received at earlier stages of their education, Spanish university students are finding it difficult to meet this new requirement. Society does not see language learning as a priority, and the aforementioned lack of effective teaching places Spaniards in a weak position with regard to language learning. Motivated by the Bologna Process, which seeks to foster the acquisition of multiple skills by students, the B1 requirement comes at the end of students’ education, regardless of what they were actually taught at primary and secondary level. This article examines the perceptions of a group of students enrolled in the master’s degree in secondary teacher training and analyses data on accreditation in general in order to draw relevant conclusions. The article focuses particularly on the options chosen by students at the University of Córdoba in order to meet the new foreign language requirement, and more specifically on the role played by the university’s language centre. Data was collected through a survey based on a validated

Perfil de colaboración científica del sistema español de educación superior. Análisis de las publicaciones en Web of Science (2002-2011)

This article analyzes inter-university collaboration within the Spanish higher education system based on the study of publications appearing in the Web of Science between 2002 and 2011. Data related to the annual research output of 81 public and private universities are shown, with a focus on collaborative institutional networks in six broad areas: Experimental Sciences; Engineering and Computer Sciences; Life Sciences; Medicine and Pharmacy; Social Sciences; Arts and Humanities. Through the visualization of co-authored works, the main institutions in each area are identified. The results show that the Spanish university system has produced 299,887 documents in 10 years with an increase of 200% between 2002 and 2011. Experimental Sciences was the area with the largest number of publications with almost 40% of the total. Collaboration profiles show that the university system changed from a model in which authorship from a single institution was the norm, to one in which international collaboration is the most prevalent.

Spain and the Lost Legal Generation: Spain's Dysfunctional University System is Also to Blame

For the last fifteen years I have taught final year law students at a Spanish state university on a regular basis. While it is extremely difficult to generalize about matters such as the following, I believe that the typical profile of the different groups of students I have taught over the years has been relatively homogenous in terms of quality and performance. Along with a minority of highly motivated and able students, at the beginning of every academic year the classes are mostly made up of silent students who area priorireluctant to accept individual responsibilities in the learning process. Having presented this seemingly harsh appraisal with no preamble, one of the aims of this essay is to set out a series of arguments that enable us to go beyond the glib self-righteousness of blaming the students for all their woes. In my opinion, it is the Spanish higher education system that is the mainly to blame for many of the factors currently holding law students back. The following factors contribute to this outcome.

The pursuit of knowledge transfer activities: An efficiency analysis of Spanish universities

This paper assesses university efficiency from a multidimensional perspective. First, the study scrutinizes universities using an efficiency measure that incorporates knowledge transfer outputs in the objective function. Second, a cluster analysis complements the efficiency model giving a more comprehensive image of universities' performance. The empirical application considers the Spanish higher education system during 2006–2009. The results point to the presence of heterogeneous orientations among Spanish universities and that universities integrate knowledge transfer in their operations at different intensities. The findings reveal that regional factors related to technological development and entrepreneurial culture strongly influence universities' efficiency and their involvement in knowledge transfer activities. As regards knowledge transfer across Spanish universities, results tend to give ammunition to the argument that effective support policies should have the capacity to be customized to fit the profile of the targeted universities and regions.

Student Reciprocal Peer Teaching as a Method for Active Learning: An Experience in an Electrotechnical Laboratory

Active learning is one of the most efficient mechanisms for learning, according to the psychology of learning. When students act as teachers for other students, the communication is more fluent and knowledge is transferred easier than in a traditional classroom. This teaching method is referred to in the literature as reciprocal peer teaching. In this study, the method is applied to laboratory sessions of a higher education institution course, and the students who act as teachers are referred to as “laboratory monitors.” A particular way to select the monitors and its impact in the final marks is proposed. A total of 181 students participated in the experiment, experiences with laboratory monitors are discussed, and methods for motivating and training laboratory monitors and regular students are proposed. The types of laboratory sessions that can be led by classmates are discussed. This work is related to the changes in teaching methods in the Spanish higher education system, prompted by the Bologna Process for the construction of the European Higher Education Area

Estrategia en la Universidad: ¿Cuestión de calidad, gerencialismo y relaciones político-financieras?

European higher education has been under reform over more than a decade and because most of Europe is characterized as a public system, the state ministries are often responsible for transformation and change at the institutional levels. Changes have triggered a new distribution of power, and many state ministries have granted autonomy to the higher education institutions by creating governing boards, establishing performance contracts with the institution, and providing strategic objectives. These reforms have been accompanied by notions of new public management and managerialism, where managerial-orientated models have emerged from the range of policy development processes across countries. This new reality has not avoided controversy and has a direct influence on issues such as academic identity, the manager-academic link to the knowledge marketization, competition between institutions and the quality of educational services and is outcomes. All this has a direct impact on the development and implementation of strategy in higher education institutions. This article at one hand, introduces a theoretical reflection upon these problematic issues and at other, using a case study in a Spanish public university, from a strategy as practice perspective, reflects on existing practices in developing Strategy and the perceptions of the involved actors about the process. Finally, it draws on reflections about the linkage of strategy to the concept of managerialism, suggesting the need for deeper and larger studies in order to analyze the connection of the managerialism with the actual practice of the strategy in the institutions and their impact on the Spanish higher education system.

Rankings <i>ISI</i> de las universidades españolas según campos y disciplinas científicas (2ª ed. 2011)

The update of the ISI rankings of Spanish universities according to fields and scientific disciplines (2nd ed. 2011) is presented. Specifically, in this second edition we focus on the inclusion of 19 new scientific disciplines and the creation of a dynamic new website. Various bibliometric analyses of the different rankings are also shown. Firstly, the updated data for the rankings on 12 scientific fields for the 2006-2010 period are presented focusing on the changes in the positions compared to the 2005-2009 period. Secondly, we present the results in the scientific disciplines during the 2006-2010 period, on the one hand for the Spanish university system as a whole, and on the other hand showing the major universities in 19 new disciplines. Finally we conclude that the 2nd edition of the ISI Rankings improves the global analysis of strengths and weaknesses in the Spanish higher education system and more precisely profiles the performance of Spanish universities in more specific areas.

Translator Training in the European Higher Education Area

All across Europe, universities are currently engaged in a process of curricular reform to meet the requirements of the Bologna Declaration (1999) and, in doing so, create the European Higher Education Area by 2010. As part of this reform process, European higher education institutions aim to adopt easily comparable curricular structures, establish a common system of credit transfer, promote student mobility and develop shared quality assurance methodologies. This paper examines a number of pedagogical principles inspired by the Bologna agenda, including the growing pervasiveness of student-centred methodologies that encourage active learning and rely on new channels for trainer-trainee interaction. It is argued that this new pedagogical trend runs parallel to recent developments in translator training, such as social constructivism (Kiraly 2000) or task-based learning (Hurtado 1999, González Davies 2004), which also revolve around the student as the centre of the learning process. The paper then focuses on a pilot adaptation experience within the Spanish higher education system: the reform of the translation degree programme at Universidad Europea de Madrid. This account begins by placing the chosen case study within the wider context of legislative reform in Spain; it then moves on to outline the steps taken to ensure that the reformed curriculum meets the institutional requirements, as well as the rationale for the proposed distribution of curricular contents within the new degree structure. The advantages of using digital portfolios as instructional tools underpinning the implementation of key principles in the Bologna reform process are also examined.

The changes to accounting education and accounting educators as a result of changes in the Spanish university system: A case study using an institutional theory approach

Accounting education is part of the wider system of higher education provision that in many individual countries has been the subject of an increasing rate of change but it is unclear to what extent these external changes have influenced the delivery of accounting education. The paper uses an institutional theory approach (Meyer & Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Powell & DiMaggio, 1991) to analyse the pressures exerted by the external institutional constituents on the Spanish higher education system in order to implement the European Higher Education Area. Specifically, the paper analyses the changes caused by these pressures on accounting education, as well as the reactions and behaviours of accounting educators to those changes. It is based on a longitudinal case study at the Department of Accounting of the University of Seville. The case study uses multiple sources including interviews, participant observation, informal discussions and documents. The results evidence the importance of coercive isomorphism on the structuring of the Spanish university system, some factors that have hindered the development of the normative isomorphism in accounting education, and the relevance of regulatory legitimacy to academic career prospects of accounting educators.

Institutional Change in the Spanish Higher Education System

The article describes institutional change in the Spanish higher education system over the past two decades. It singles out four variables in explaining this change: (i) demography, (ii) economic environment (the so‐called knowledge society), (iii) the role and interests of academics and politicians, and (iv) the supranational stimulus to converge (Bologna Process).Although after Franquism each of these factors had notable consequences on tertiary education, at least initially it seems that supply‐side factors were very important in sustaining institutional change in Spanish universities. Above all, politicians and regional governments boosted democratisation by opening new universities (which since 1980s have increased in number from 32 to 70), by lowering entrance requirements, and by keeping fees low. At the end of the 1990s, European declarations (Sorbonne, Bologna) increased the significance of Europe, with a twofold effect: they induced governments to introduce change in higher education systems (convergence), but they also highlighted the difficulty of combining the role of the state (as signatory to international declarations) and peripheral institutions (Comunidades autónomas and autonomous universities).

Improving Institutional Efficiency in the Spanish Higher Education System

* There have been changes in the internal management, better internal efficiency in the use of the resources, and changes in the organisation and the structure of the government. The changes in the different institutions are directly linked to the external pressure to which they are subjected. The universities that are under greater pressure in terms of restrictions in their budgets or control of their results show greater initiative to adopt these changes. But the magnitude of the changes depends on the capacity of the universities to carry them out. The existence of legal, institutional or structural barriers can sometimes cause problems in the adoption of necessary changes or can modify their sense. The aim of this article is to describe some of the initiatives taken by Spanish universities to improve their efficiency, both internal (technical) and external (economic). Two universities with different characteristics and situations have been chosen. However, they do have a common feature: they have introduced

Market trends in Spanish higher education

Higher education in Spain broke away from its close dependency on the State in the last decade. In this paper we analyze the steps undertaken by the Spanish higher education system which has allowed market influences to grow in recent years. We analyze the historical framework and legal changes which have facilitated market trends in higher education. We consider the influence of these market trends on the financial and organizational structure of universities. We conclude that, though the steps are still hesitant, market-like elements are increasingly affecting every aspect of higher education life.