The Higher Education as a Generator of Strategic Competences (HEGESCO) project addressed two broad questions: (a) which competences do higher education graduates require in order to be better equipped for labour demand and active citizenship? and (b) how should higher education institutions develop these competences?
HEGESCO consisted of the following work packages and tasks, which have been designed to provide answers to the above two questions:
Implementation of a quantitative survey among graduates in the participating countries (Slovenia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Turkey) following the REFLEX recommendation: the target population consisted of graduates of ISCED 5A to be approached some 5 years after graduation (sample = 2000 per country). This large-scale survey was based on the questionnaire of the REFLEX network, an earlier FP6 project involving research on similar topics, and was designed to ensure comparability with the previous results of REFLEX.
In addition to the survey among graduates, another complementary survey were carried out targeting the management of the higher education institutions these graduates have attended, with the emphasis on their existing curricula development strategies and organisation of teaching practices.
A secondary analysis of European, national and (selected) universities' strategies were carried out with a focus on competences development. Recommendations were prepared for instruments and strategies needed for modernizing and organizing curricula with a focus on effective learning methods.
Procedures were developed for continuous monitoring of the quality of higher education from the perspective of work environment and the higher education institutions for curricula upgrading.
In every participating country there was at least one presentation of the research findings for national policy makers and other stakeholders. In addition, there were international presentations for the relevant organizations such as OECD, European Universities Association and European Commission.
The project was funded by: EAC-ERASMUS
The project homepage is available here.
Researchers: Péter Róbert and Matild Sági
