Special Issue "Competences: The Role of Higher Education Institutions"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2021).

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Guijarro-García
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Guest Editor
Research Department, ESIC Business & Marketing School, Valencia, 46023, Spain
Interests: innovation; education; ICT; marketing
Special Issues and Collections 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://doi.org/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://doi.org/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://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-04-2016-0022

Rust, C. (2007). Towards a scholarship of assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32(2), 229-237. https://doi.org/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 papers will be 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 quarterly 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 1200 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 (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Closing the Gap between Graduates’ Skills and Employers’ Requirements: A Focus on the Strategic Management Capstone Business Course
Adm. Sci. 2021, 11(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci11010010 - 26 Jan 2021
Viewed by 1408
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 [...] Read more.
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)
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Article
Competence Development and Employability Expectations: A Gender Perspective of Mobility Programmes in Higher Education
Adm. Sci. 2020, 10(3), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci10030074 - 14 Sep 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1033
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 [...] Read more.
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)
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