25 February 2008
Others
The European Union allocates funding for scholarships and grants for study on these programmes, so hundreds of applications from graduates with outstanding academic records are received from all countries worldwide.
Being awarded this European community label means great support for the work carried out in the process of adaptation to the quality and excellence requirements involved in the implementation of the European Higher Education Area, known as the Bologna Process.Thus, Deusto continues to consolidate the adaptation of this process, being the first European university to have been awarded the EC recognition for the implementation of European credits (ECTS).
The pedagogical renewal of learning processes (Deusto Education Model), the new Library at the San Sebastian campus and the future launch of the Learning and Research Resource Centre -CRAI- (the new Library designed by Rafael Moneo) at the Bilbao campus, will be essential tools for the pedagogical changes currently underway, as well as for the achievement of European convergence.
A number of changes and innovations at different levels of university work have been gradually introduced.First of all, the academic staff at Deusto has been provided with the methods and approaches of the European Credit (ECTS). In addition, the role of the academic staff has undergone a change, since now it is focused on students? autonomous and significant learning rather than on lecturers? master classes.To this purpose, a Learning Model has been developed, which defines the competences and roles to be carried out by the academic staff under this new approach.Over 6,000 hours have been devoted to academic staff training.
In addition, 80% of lecturers have been provided with laptops, and rooms have been fitted with wireless access points and multimedia facilities. Degrees have already been restructured under the European approach and there are already new graduates under the implementation of the syllabus based on competences and European credits. A number of research papers have been published on the competences to be achieved by students upon completion of their studies, which correspond to the new academic and professional profiles.35 generic competences have been defined, with three levels and five indicators each.Similarly, specific software has been designed for competence assessment.
Thus, the implementation of the new qualifications will mean the culmination of this long and consolidated process.
The University of Deusto started it active involvement in the Erasmus Programme in the 90s.At present, it ranks among the first higher education institutions in Europe to have the highest rates of mobility and exchange of students and lecturers in Europe, both from the European Union and from other non-Community countries.
Laying the foundations for the Bologna Process, the European Union Directorate-General for Education entrusted the coordination of the Tuning Programme to the University of Deusto.This programme is an extraordinary effort to bring together syllabus design, the adaptation of learning process and the recognition of qualifications among the different European universities.At a first stage, the University of Deusto led this important initiative among the two thousand European higher education institutions involved.At a second stage, the European Union appointed Deusto to coordinate the creation of the Latin American Higher Education Area, leading its dissemination to the one hundred and eighty-two universities in Latin America, with the eighteen Ministries of Education and the corresponding Rectors? Conferences.
The work carried out by Deusto has been disseminated worldwide during the last few years, and it has signed agreements with prestigious universities in five continents, aimed at promoting collaboration, mobility and exchange, joint degrees and double degrees.
Guided by the aim of promoting justice, special mention should be made of the launch and development of the NOHA Network on Humanitarian Action, which is supported by ECHO, the European Community Humanitarian Office responsible for humanitarian action and the promotion of human rights worldwide.This network, made up of over two hundred universities, research centres, institutions and non-governmental organisations, has carried out PhD, Master?s Degree and intensive course programmes, as well as important transnational research on these issues. In addition, it is actively involved in the Network of Excellence on the problems of immigration in Europe, in collaboration with about twenty centres.
Within the framework of the European Higher Education Area, the University of Deusto faces the reform of qualifications fully convinced that it has done a good job, recognised by the European Union, and that it has served the Basque society, encouraged by its strong aim to open up to the world and deeply committed to justice.
