The focus on skills for improving students’ engagement: the Tuning educational structures approach

contributors | abstract | presentation | biographies | posters

Contributors

Maria Pilar Canedo Arrillaga, Luis Gordillo Pérez, Paula Comellas and Naiara Arriola Echaniz (University of Deusto)

Format

Paper and poster presentation

Abstract

1. Contextualization of the Tuning project

The world in which we are living is in constant transformation and words like internationalization, transnationalization and globalization come up more and more frequently. Globalization involves a change in our social values, and an understanding about the role that law plays in our society nowadays. We have seen a movement from localised education towards a transnational one which has several consequences, not only in the way in which education is perceived, but also in the way in which it is taught2. In the last decades we have witnessed reactions to change and several initiatives within the European Higher Education Area, due to the Bologna Declaration in 1999. In this context the Tuning project arose in 2000 taking into account the rapid change with society and the higher educational sector by the 1999 Bologna Declaration.

Tuning is a university driven project which aims to offer a concrete approach to implement the Bologna Process at the level of higher education institutions and subject areas. This approach consists of a methodology to (re-) design, develop, implement and evaluate study programmes for each of the Bologna cycles. Since 2000 three phases have been developed and several of the Bologna action lines have been addressed: notably the adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees, and the adoption of a system based on three cycles (including Doctoral studies) with the establishment of a system of credits.

The application of this Tuning project to legal studies has implied the definition of a list of skills (both generic and specific), which students should develop within different cycles. With those skills we intend to create curricula (curriculum?) which helps students enter their professional lives more easily and improves the level of motivation of students using an innovative method of teaching and assessment. We have also tried to make academic lives closer to those of stakeholders.

2. The application of Tuning principles to legal education

The lecturers that present this proposal are working together on the implementation of generic and specific competences of some legal areas, which have been translated into ordinary courses in Spain. This is the reason why we intend to present four posters showing our learning procedure from skills to methodology and assessment, in the following fields:

a) International Law

• Public International Law
• Private International Law

b) Constitutional Law

• State Theory and Rule of Law
• Sources of Law

3. Conclusion

Despite the relevant differences among the legal systems inside Europe and the European Union, the analysis of the different curriculums and the professional profiles of the students, show that the focus of skills all over Europe are on a very similar list.

The legal specification of general competence is fundamental for the creation of a successful legal curriculum, and special mention must be made to the methodology of development. An assessment on the level of student achievement is one of the key concepts for students and the programs.
The existence of educational systems based on student skills promotes the mobility of students because it improves (in a very significant level) the transparency of the curriculum both for students and stakeholders in a traditionally closed market.

The internationalization of economies and markets has underlined the relevance of legal professionals trained with skills that make them capable to answer the new needs of society. Mobility is essential to achieve this goal and the structure of legal studies can help to make this possibility real for an increasing number of students.

Presentation

Short biographies of panel members

Maria Pilar Canedo Arrillaga, PhD in Private International Law, at the University of Deusto. Member of Tuning Legal Studies in Europe and Latin America. Jean Monet Chair Holder. Professor of Private International Law.

Luis Gordillo Pérez, PhD in Constitutional Law with European mention at the University of Deusto. Lecturer on Constitutional Law. Co-ordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Master on Transnational Trade Law and Finance. Editor of “Estudios de Deusto” (Legal Journal).

Paula Comellas, PhD Candidate in Public International Law, at University of Deusto. Research Assistant of the Transnational Law Research Group. Member of Tuning Research Group.

Naiara Arriola Echaniz. PhD Candidate in Transnational Constitutional Law. Lecturer on Constitutional Law. Member of the Transnational Law Research Group and of the Tuning Research Group.

Last Modified: 31 January 2011