Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article aims at consolidating the theoretical framework of University Social Responsibility (USR) based on the conceptual analysis of the ten more common fallacies regarding the meaning of this university trend, from the Latin American standpoint. This allows to define the conceptual progress reached since the beginning of the 21st century regarding the triple dimension of the ethical principles governing USR, the social transformation objective beneath it, and the cross-sectional management policy that makes it possible, without falling into a general reductionism that takes it for a mere declaratory commitment, a series of good practices, an enterprise ideology, a trivial instrumental management strategy, or an expression of self-indulgence of university authorities. The critical explanations contribute additionally to the debate on the pertinence of USR prizes flourishing at present, in contrast with the legal frameworks that now impose social responsibility on higher education. It can be concluded that the remarkable progress in USR in Latin America demands seriousness in its definition.

Management of university social responsibility requires the mainstreaming of contents on sustainable development and social responsibility in the academic field. In this context, this pedagogical experience explores the design of a serious game as a pedagogical tool to obtain an approximate and realistic knowledge of the concepts related to social responsibility, proposing the outline for historicization, referencing, and explaining processes for the design of social responsibility educational games aimed at undergraduate students. Its possible use as a platform for the creative development of students’ sustainable innovation and as a method of evaluating knowledge acquisition of social responsibility is discussed.

The development of cross-sectional competences in higher education is of special interest because of its link to the socio-labor context. The inclusion of these competences in the university curriculum is irregular and complex. Teamwork, social interaction, ethical-social commitment, and emotional control are, among others, key competences of professionals nowadays. The aim of this work is to ascertain the degree of development of these four cross-sectional competences and to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their training process, and finally to analyze the proposals for improvement provided by 1,137 students in their final year of undergraduate studies from the five branches of knowledge at Universidad de Murcia. The CECTGRA questionnaire was applied and its answers were analyzed from a mixed approach alternating the use of the SPSS v23 and ATLAS.TI 7 programs. The results point out towards the need to improve the development of competences; teamwork is the most developed, with emotional control at the opposite end, with significant differences among each branch of knowledge. The strengths identified are grouped in relation to students themselves, the environment, and the structure; and the weaknesses and proposals for improvement revolving on the institution, the center, and the classroom.

In the learning society, one of the challenges for teachers in training is the need to define and develop a set of professional skills in their initial training, essential for their subsequent entry into the labor market. In this work, the aim was to delve into the employability skills developed by students in the Primary Education undergraduate study program, their relevance for their process of socio-labor insertion, as well as their global perception to face it. An inter-university study was carried out with a total of 210 students in their final year at Universidad de Murcia and Universidade da Coruña, both Spanish. The collection of information was carried out on the basis of the previously validated Labor Counseling and Insertion Questionnaire. The results showed few differences between the assessments of the students of both universities, which coincide in pointing out to a greater relevance of the competences as opposed to the level of development in the classroom. In short, attention should be directed to joining efforts by the Spanish government in the initial training of primary education teachers, so that they can acquire a set of competences that will allow a continuous improvement and updating in their professional, social and personal performance, in addition to their career inception

In Cuba, the challenge for universities is to dynamize learning spaces in contexts of economic development, with the relationship between universities and territories being the key to their success. In this paper, we intend to socialize the alternatives that should be assumed for the training of facilitators that articulate in local innovation systems and that departs from the foundations of Education for the development of competences in the professional performance. This way, it contributes to the research of the professional profiles of the local actors who intervene in the processes of development of the food program in Cuba through the application of a questionnaire and discussion groups. The sample used was comprised of various local actors who interact directly in agricultural contexts and perform different functions. The information collected and processing of quantitative data with the use of the SSPS statistical package and for the qualitative data with Nudist Vivo, determined not only the competence portfolios in professional performance, but also the ways to include courses that are inserted in undergraduate and graduate education resulting in the creation of knowledge management processes and innovation for the development of a fair, equitable, and inclusive society.

This article, based on the results of a doctoral thesis study, deals with two aspects: the adaptation and validation of an instrument to measure the intercultural sensitivity of university students and the relationship between the measurement of the intercultural sensitivity scale versus the experience profile of university students in the face of international and/or the multicultural experiences. The instrument was applied to 280 students from Universidad Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. The results of the analysis of the technical characteristics of the scale indicate that it has content validity and that the instrument scores are reliable. It was found that all variables related to direct international and/or multicultural experience appear with a significant difference, except for the variable referring to number of foreign teachers, which supports research works that have found that the learning of the intercultural competence is an active process of constant learning throughout life, with a high experiential component, i.e., that it is carried out mainly through direct experience with “the other different,” either in one-to-one or group interactions, either in their own country or abroad.

This article deals with social responsibility (SR) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) management, with a focus on confessional and non-profit private sector institutions. It aims to study the trends in the guiding principles within the SR, adopted in the higher education management by the Brazilian HEIs of La Salle University Network, a Christian religious education order, present  in 77 countries. A multiple case study was carried out, taking as reference the 5 HEIs maintained in Brazil by the Lasallian Brothers. The study analyzed the content of  the responses resulting from the application of a questionnaire to 66 university managers, who represent 57.4% of the total of managers, and conducted  a documentary analysis of the Institutional Development Plan (IDP) of each of the five Lasallian HEIs studied. The research reveals trends and specificities of university management, aggregated in four guiding principles: 1) ethical stance and actions transparency; 2) education and integral education; 3) institutional environment of reception, care and appreciation of the actors of educational action; and 4) commitment to life and the planet preservation.

This article aims to analyze and reflect on: (a) the role that competences–as a defining component of work activity and occupation in the coming decades—have in a hyper‑technological and globalized society; (b) the incorporation that is taking place in Spain of Skills-Based Training in Higher Education (both in professional training and in university studies); and (c) the conditioning factors and challenges that Higher Education faces in the immediate future in relation to competences. The technological factor—from robotization to artificial intelligence—together with demographic, social, and economic factors confirm the importance of cross-sectional competences in the careers of the future. Faced with this demand, it can be seen that the Higher Education is currently in the process of adopting competences as the axis of training. While the curricula have already been defined on the basis of competences, an advancement in methodological change is still required (through active methodologies), as well as in evaluation (considering learning results) so that the insertion of competences in Professional Training and in the university is complete.

This research—included in the "Professional Qualifications of the Pharmaceutical Industry Within the Framework of the LOGSE” thesis—responds to the need to verify the relevance, quality, and effectiveness of the degrees of Technician in Manufacturing Operations of Pharmaceutical Products, (TOFPF), at the secondary level, and Higher Technician in Manufacturing of Pharmaceutical and Related Products (TSFPA), in higher education. Both degrees were created in 1993, in response to European Directives and Spanish legislation, dated as of 1991, on Good Manufacturing Practices of Medications, for human, veterinary, and cosmetics use, which requires manufacturers to have sufficient competent staff, with appropriate qualifications in all their manufacturing facilities to achieve the objective of pharmaceutical quality assurance. The article includes the evaluation of the quality of the TSFPA degree from its identification and design mechanisms (1991-1994), as well as the results and effects of its implementation and development (1995-2015), and even its revision (2004-2017) and impact providing qualitative and quantitative empirical evidence, according to the reference indicators proposed by the Recommendation on the establishment of a European Framework of Reference for Quality Assurance in Professional Training.

Doctoral studies lead to the highest level of academic qualification, promoting the development of competences that enable individuals to perform as leaders in the generation of scientific knowledge and its application in the improvement of society, through research and innovation. The process of acquiring competences involves a demanding and long-lasting training path that entails difficulties that must be overcome with the help of both personal and contextual factors. In this research, information has been gathered on the perceptions of trainee researchers (8 participants: 5 women and 3 men) regarding the learning process at the three moments of the doctoral program: learning expectations, difficulties and resources at the beginning, difficulties and support experienced, as well as partial learning perceived in the process, and learning perceived at the end, once the doctoral thesis has been defended and approved. The results have made it possible to identify the fundamental contextual and individual aspects in each of the three moments of the researchers’ training. These findings have important implications for the planning and development of doctoral training programs.