THE END OF DEGREE PROJECT (EDP): A MODEL IN THE BOLOGNA SCENARIO

THE END OF DEGREE PROJECT (EDP): A MODEL IN THE BOLOGNA SCENARIO Dr. Joan Francesc Fondevila Gascón 1, Dr. Josep Lluís del Olmo Arriaga 2 1 Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (SPAIN) 2 Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (SPAIN) jfondevilag@uao.es,jlolmo@uao.es Abstract We show the Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (UAO) End of Degree Project (EDP) model in the Bologna framework. We define the concept of EDP in the field of the Social and Juridical Sciences. In fact, there is a scanty tradition in this area in the accomplishment of works of end of career. Normally, the students have elaborated research works in the frame of methodological subjects and also they have developed works of bibliographical deepening in a concrete subject matter. On the other hand, in some universities the students have made practices. Nevertheless, none of these three activities coincides exactly with what we should define as an EDP. Keywords: End of Degree Project, Bologna, model, Social and Juridical Sciences. 1 THE END OF DEGREE PROJECT (EDP) IN THE SOCIAL AND JURIDICAL SCIENCES Since there raise diverse authors [1], the implantation of the new qualifications of Degree and of Postdegree, as well as the creation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), is helping to generate a new university culture, establishing the need to restate the educational beginning that turn out to be more adapted to organize an education adapted to the needs of the company of the information [2]. The Organic Law 4/2007 1 establishes a new frame establishes in the process of "modernization" of the University in the scene of convergence of the education towards the construction of the EHEA. It is a question of a new model that tries to give response to the demands of the society in an opened context and in constant transformation, as the RD1383 2 explains. One of the innovations introduced by the RD 1393 3 of arrangement of the university official education is the obligatory nature to end the studies of the End of Degree Project (EDP), to which there is granted an out-standing number of European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). In the area of the Social and Juridical Sciences there is a scanty tradition in the accomplishment of EDP. Normally, the students of these disciplines have elaborated investigation works in the frame of methodological subjects. The students have also developed works of bibliographical deepening in a concrete subject matter. On the other hand, in different university studies there have been established practices, and the memory of these has taken relevancy as end of career work. This one is the case of the most technical or experimental careers, as Architecture or Engineering. Nevertheless, with the adaptation to the EHEA, the EDP has acquired a new, more complete and integrative dimension. The concretion in a subject has a relievant weight in ECTS, and it implies othe way to understand this king of learning [3]. This "final project" shapes the last work that it is necessary to present before concluding the cycle of Degree of a full way and begin on the labor market, or continue the formative stage in the cycle of Master, following the Organic Law 4/2007. To finish the formative process of Degree, the student must 1 Organic Law 4/2007, 12 April. 2 Royal Decree 1393/2007, 29 October. 3 Royal Decree 1393/2007, 29 October, which establishes the ordenation of the offical University studies.

integrate and apply -with professional, creative and innovative criterion- the theoretical competitions and practices acquired along the Degree, and to incorporate new competitions, related specifically to the EDP (autonomy, initiative put in practice and development of the knowledge, skills and strategies acquired during the development of the career), as well as to give efficient solution to the problems that derive from the same one. 1.1 EDP methodology The project shelters a deep component of autonomous work; the students have to regulate and to manage their own learning process. In fact, great part of the assigned credits are in the habit of carried out in not presencial schedule in the classroom, in environments as home, library, documentary files, scientific or professional forums, congresses, etc. 1.2 EDP tutorization One of the fundamental aspects in the development of the EDP is the advice of the director or tutor. This one is the person in charge of guiding to the student in the process of production of the EDP, as well as of certifying the quality of the results obtained on the basis of the methodology and the technical rigor used. Some authors hold that the principal function of this guide is precisely to turn into "facilitator" of the guidelines and keys who is going to need the student in every part of the process of production of the project. In this matter, of a special way, the tutorships with the director or tutor acquire an out-standing importance. Not only they must be carried out of periodic form to bring what has been advanced in the time from the previous fixed tutorship, but also by means of the request of appointments of the most urgent character, when situations of stagnation take place in some sense. 2 COMPETENCES AND PHASES IN THE EDP DEVELOPMENT 2.1 EDP associated competences The identification of the competitions associated with the EDP begins with the review of the Dublin 4 describers, which allows to differentiate the competitions associated with the first cycle, the second cycle and the third cycle, and to identify the implied ones in the accomplishment of a EDP [4]. The obtained competitions are the following ones 5 : -To identify a topic -To carry out an initial search of documentation on a topic -To establish questions and/or aims to orientate the work -To identify and to organize the fundamental elements of the EDP -To establish the different phases of accomplishment of the EDP -To present and to defend publicly the report of progress in front of the tutor and the group of companions -To select the fundamental sources for the construction of the referential frame of the EDP -To relate the information extracted from the sources with the own exposition of the TFG -To integrate the knowledge to construct the theoretical frame -To gather, to analyse and to interpret the obtained information -To dominate the specialized language of the scientific field -To express correctly of oral form and in writing in Catalan, Spanish and/or a third language -To express orally in a suitable way 4 http://www.aqu.cat/doc/doc_97918394_1.pdf. 5 Ibid.

-To communicate correctly the information -To communicate correctly with expert hearings -To identify the most relevant aspects of the work -To interpret rigorously the information -To answer significantly to the demands of the expert persons -Be aware of the followed process generating new knowledge and integrating the already acquired one 2.2 Phases in the EDP development The guide subdivides in eleven stages considered in the study and that answer to the analysis of the most important moments in the development of the EDP. 2.2.1 Theme election (phase 1) To choose the topic is one of the most complex tasks in the process of production of the EDP. Some universities offer to the students the list of the possible fenced topics between which it must select one for the production of his project. This is in the habit of coinciding with the thematic axes that they are contemplated in the lines of investigation of every Faculty or with the proximity to the professional profile that the professors have followed in his path. Nevertheless, a lot of Faculties tryu the student chooses in a free way the topic that more could interest him for the production of the EDP. Often, the success or failure of a work of these characteristics takes root in a guessed right or erroneous choice of the topic. It is possible to identify a topic for different reasons: for the pure interest of the investigation and the knowledge of the reality, for the need to know a reality to explain it or to transform it or, simply, for going deeply and to specialize itself in a topic of interest. The latter is in the habit of being the principal reason that moves to the student body to develop his EDP. 2.2.2 Investigation problems (phase 2) In this EDP phase, the student must expose the aspects, elements and relations of the studied problems, which the theory and the practice indicate like fundamental. For it, it must formulate the questions of the investigation from the theoretical and empirical analysis. The terms of reference of the problem consist of presenting and exposing the characteristics of a topic. It is a question of presenting, definitively, the current condition of the question on the chosen topic. In this phase diverse questions must be formulated like, for example, in what measure has it been investigated previously on this topic? Which are the last empirical investigations that exist on this topic or similar someone? Or which are the most relevant conclusions on the topic that has been obtained in other investigations? Once detected the problem the student has to decide from what prism or part of a discipline it is going to approach to study it. It is the moment in which the formulation of the problem can be elaborated. It is the forecast on the situation. 2.2.3 Project goals (phase 3) In this stage, the students approach the analysis of the empirical reality presented as problem. Depending on the degree of knowledge that is tried to reach of this reality or problem a few certain aims will appear. In the first investigations, and giving the nature of the EDP, it is advisable beeing modest in the formulation of the aims. These can be determined by multiple factors: time dedicated to the investigation, field of investigation, wealth of information that contributes the problem, etc. The aims of the investigation determine its course and indicate the purpose that chases the project. It is a question of the goals or points of reference that orientate the investigation. The draft of the aims must be clear and makes concrete and must not give place to ambiguities. For it, the verb is in use in infinitive: to describe, to explore, to identify, to exhibit, to confirm, to evaluate, to predict, etc. The aims determine the type of investigation to create. 2.2.4 EDP justification (phase 4)

The justification of the project can include a detail of the precedents, reasons and importance of the situation that has motivated that carries out the project. Depending on the personal interests of the authorship, the project can be argued from the epistemological optics, from the social point of view, from his purpose of public service, from the perspective of his utilization or from his advance in case of the new technologies, between others. Nevertheless, the university tradition and the academic and scientific doctrine tend to demand at least three types of justifications in this type of works: theoretical, practical and methodological [5]. 2.2.5 The framework (phase 5) It consists of the positioning inside a theoretical concrete frame, that is to say, the students must take a position from the theoretical point of view inside the discipline or field of knowledge that it has selected to approach to study the empirical problem of the selected reality. For it, it is necessary to to do a systematic and planned review of the previous investigations that have been realized on the topic in question, prioritizing the scientific reviews, documents of work, minutes of congresses and books. In this research, and taking account the Internet increasing role as scientific contents storage, it is necessary to have a right broadband access [6]. The presentation of this frame of reference must be done in a clear and tidy way, differentiating the arguments, reflections and conclusions contributed by the authors that the student takes as a reference in the topic of his final project of degree. 2.2.6 The hypothesis formulation (phase 6) The hypothesis constitutes a powerful instrument for the scientific investigation, since it allows to relate the theory to the direct observation of the reality and vice versa. The hypotheses orientate the investigation on having established links between the theory and the reality of the facts, and indicate the ways to look for the information that are needed for his confirmation. A hypothesis is an attempt of resolution of a problem. It indicates what tries to be proved; it is, therefore, a supposition. The student body, across the hypothesis, must try to provide an explanation anticipated to the problem of investigation. 2.2.7 The theoretical frame development (phase 7) The theoretical frame must not get confused with the frame of reference. The function of the first one has to see with the theoretical and conceptual development of the subject matter of the project, whereas the frame of reference contributes a reference of thought as for currents, authors, schools and investigations related to the topic chosen in the final project. This one is the nuclear phase of the work. In it, it is necessary to penetrate, from the theoretical point of view, into the disciplines that sustain the final project of degree and in the conceptual approximation of the title and topic of the project. 2.2.8 The method (phase 8) The accomplishment of a EDP in the area of the Social and Juridical Sciences needs method, that is to say, it is required the utilization of a few technologies of investigation that allow to reach a few scientific conclusions. For it, it is indispensable to choose the most suitable technologies that allow to identify and to know better the problem and the reality which the author comes closer in the project. These technologies can be of quantitative or qualitative character, though they are not incompatible between them, but according to the type of investigation that of it wants to rise they can be in use of complementary form for reaching the same end. 2.2.9 The obtained results (phase 9) Once applied a method to observe the social reality that is wanted to investigate there is obtained a few information from the technology of compilation of used information. Therefore, in this phase the information is tabulated and systematized to be able to analyze it of meticulous and tidy form. According to the chosen method, there are obtained results of qualitative or quantitative character. In this phase there is recommended that the students present the information of descriptive form across graphs, tables, pictures, etc. Those help to visualize of clear and synthetic form the obtained results. Later, this information must be analyzed; it is to say, what aspects of the results are interesting from the point of view of the aims and the hypotheses presented in the project. In last place, they can put in relation on the information obtained with those of other similar investigations that have been

realized on a similar phenomenon. In this stage, there is the one who is useful to do a reflection on the application of his method and the results that they have obtained. 2.2.10 Conclusions (phase 10) It is a question of the most important paragraph of the work of the EDP; it is the moment where the student exposes the most relevant conclusions of his project from the results obtained in the application of a scientific method. They must be orientated in three directions: a) to solve the questions that have been formulated in the beginning of the investigation, b) mention to the aims proposed in the investigation and, finally, c) to verify if they have been fulfilled totally, partially or the hypotheses have not been fulfilled. The conclusions must be enumerated and exhibited with total rotundity, avoiding an excessively adorned and ambiguous language. There is the one who suggests future lines of investigation that stem in order that other investigators, in other moments, could take again this topic in a future. 2.2.11 Bibliography (phase 11) This paragraph gathers the documentary sources to which one has come to base the investigation object of study. These differ in two types: -Primary. The documentation is obtained first hand; it is to say, the student body obtains the information of the original source. -Secondary. The information obtains across the published in other external sources to the publication, as works of reference, other bibliographies, catalogues of libraries, etc. Inside the document, in case of doubts or discrepancies, there is a preferential order of the sources according to the type of publication [7]. 3 CONCLUSION In the frame of the EEES, the EDP must be a project orientated to the development of an investigation, an intervention or an innovation in the professional field. It is necessary to establish an agreed model for the Social and Juridical Sciences, because the EDP could be a step in the research fields of each university. This work represents a piece of investigation, intervention or innovation more elaborated and concrete, and it gives opportunities for the personal and academic development of the student. The EDP can open a professional way, because the student must integrate and apply the competitions acquired along the degree. Skills like enterprise strategy, autonomy or initiative are an added value from the EDP. REFERENCES [1] Martín, E. (2009). Profesorado competente para formar alumnado competente: el reto del cambio docente, in J. I. POZO & M. P. PÉREZ (coord.). Psicología del Aprendizaje universitario: la formación en competencias, 199-215. Madrid: Morata. [2] Lara, T. (2009). El papel de la Universidad en la construcción de su identidad digital, in Cultura digital y prácticas creativas en educación [online]. Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento (RUSC). Vol. 6, nº 1. UOC. http://rusc.uoc.edu/ojs/index.php/rusc/article/viewfile/25/19. [3] Marta Lazo, C. & Vadillo Bengoa, N. (2010). El Proyecto Final en los Grados de Comunicación dentro del EEES (p. 13), in Marta Lazo, C. (coord.). El EEES y el Proyecto Final en los Grados de Comunicación. Madrid: Fragua. [4] Mateo Andrés, J. (coord.) (2009). Guía para la evaluación de competencias en el trabajo de fin de grado en el ámbito de las ciencias sociales y jurídicas. Agència per a la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya. [online]. http://www.aqu.cat/doc/doc _30156918_1.pdf [5] Sierra Sánchez, J. & Cabezuelo Lorenzo, F. (2010). Etapas en la elaboración de un Proyecto de Fin de Grado, in Marta Lazo, C. (coord.). El EEES y el Proyecto Final en los Grados de Comunicación. Madrid: Fragua.

[6] Fondevila Gascón, J. F.; Del Olmo Arriaga, J. L. (2011). The Impact of Broadband in the University Internet Activities. Barcelona: EDULEARN 2011 (International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies). [7] TERMCAT Centre de Terminologia. (2009). Bibliografia: Criteris de presentació en els treballs terminològics. Vic: Eumo Editorial.