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Butlletí

A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

94

July 2019

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EDITORIAL

AQU Catalunya collaborates for the first time with VIA UNIVERSITÀRIA II

The first "Via Universitària" project was started by the Vives Network of Universities and the Bofill Foundation in 2013, the main goal of which was to gain a better understanding of the profile of students in the universities that form part of the network where the Catalan language is spoken, their study conditions and environments, as well as their satisfaction with their university and teaching. This involved establishing the number of hours they spend studying, how many students work and study at the same time, where they live, their use of university services, etc.

The project is based on a lengthy online survey of the twenty universities in the Network and has many points in common with the Eurostudent project, a study carried out in most European countries, although in Spain it was considered expedient not to participate.

The findings of the project are quite exceptional and extraordinarily important inasmuch they enable universities to better understand the needs of students and align their services according to the students' expectations. In certain cases this can be done without the need for any additional resources by better directing and focusing what is already in place in line the students' needs and requirements. The profile of students has, after all, changed radically in recent years and it continues to change, and so there is a clear need for up-to-date monitoring of their needs and requirements.


AQU NEWS

ARTICLES

  • Via Universitària helps us to better understand students and their time at university
    On 15 May the Vives Network of Universities presented the results and findings of the Via Universitària project (2017-2019), a survey study in which more than 40,000 students from twenty universities in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Andorra took part. Anna Prades, project manager at AQU Catalunya and technical director of the project, gave the presentation.

    The aim of the Via Universitària programme is to better understand the quality of life among university students in Catalonia, their study conditions and environments, their connection with university as an institution, their cultural habits, their economic constraints, together with their expectations, values and beliefs about higher education.
    Anna Prades and Dani Torrents - Head and Senior advisor of Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Department
  • The Talent observatory web portal
    The requirements of the labour market have transformed over time mainly in occupations where technological change has had an important impact on job tasks and functions. As a result, enterprises have gradually adapted the skills requirements for new recruitment and staff training according to their new needs.

    One of the major difficulties facing the main economic and social agents is being able to identify in advance the trend of skills requirements in the labour market. Such information is crucial for enhancing an agent's adaptability to changing requirements.
    Anna Prades - Head of Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Department
 

OPINION

  • The Via Universitària programme and the importance of better understanding university students

    Miquel Martínez and Ernest Pons
    Professor of Educational Theory, member of the Education in Values and Moral Development Research Group (GREM) at the UB and an EcoViPEU researcher · Associate professor of Economics at the UB and an EcoViPEU researcher

    Universities have been the scene of important changes in recent decades. Among other things, these include changes in the cultural capital, skills and competences, as well as the motivations, of new university students. Available data show that a shift is taking place in the social understanding of what it means to "be a university student”. Different ways of understanding what study and involvement at university are also being developed. On the one hand, there is a trend towards new-entry students being increasingly older, each with a different pace of life due to family, social or economic reasons. Students for whom, in many cases, a university education is not their sole interest, either because they have a job to maintain at the same time or because of other activities that require their attention. On the other hand, changes have also been observed in the intensity and models of student commitment.

    Although previous initiatives did exist, interest in the living and study conditions of students gathered pace with the setting up of the European Higher Education Area. The final communiqué of the ministerial summit in London in 2007 stated that "higher education should play a strong role in fostering social cohesion, reducing inequalities and raising the level of knowledge, skills and competences in society". It also proposed achieving these objectives by ensuring that students reflect social diversity in all levels of education, including higher education.

 

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