PARTICIPATION OF DAUGAVPILS UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS IN THE ASSESSMENT OF COMPETENCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF DYNAMICS OF COMPETENCIES CARRIED OUT BY THE UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA
Aktualizēts 06.03.2020 09:47
The European Commission’s New Skills Program for Europe (A NEW SKILLS AGENDA FOR EUROPE) indicates that one of the most topical issues that today’s higher education is facing is the mismatch between the competences acquired by graduates and the knowledge and skills needed for the economy.
Higher education institutions need to improve their understanding of university graduates’ achievements. The European Commission supports and encourages the development of frameworks for student competence assessment in different areas of higher education to ensure comparable assessment of student and graduate skills.
At the end of 2019, the Ministry of Education and Science and the University of Latvia signed a cooperation agreement on ESF project No.8.3.6.2. Action 3.2. In January 2020, the first round of the study “Assessment of Competences of Higher Education Students and Their Development Dynamics during the Study Period” was launched at the University of Latvia. 8.3.6.2. Development and implementation of education quality monitoring system (8.3.6.2/17/I/001 (23-12.3e / 19/103)).
The aim of the project is to investigate transversal competences of students – research, innovation, entrepreneurship, digital and global, as well as civic competences – in order to find out the dynamics of their development in the following study areas: RIS 3, creative industry, public management and education. The study will also develop a tool for assessing teachers’ professional competences, which will serve as an example for the harmonization and validation of tools for measuring professional and transversal competences. In the first phase of the research, a methodology for assessing students’ competences and dynamics of their development will be developed and approbated.
The research is carried out by the LU LU PPMF Research Institute of Pedagogy, by the involvement of 27 leading researchers, researchers, experts and scientific assistants from 8 universities and “Lielvārds”: LU, Liepāja University, Rezekne Academy of Technology, Riga Technical University, Rīga Stradiņa University, Daugavpils University, Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Academy of Music, Groningen University (The Netherlands) and educational company “Lielvārds”. The scientific leader of the project is prof. Zanda Rubene. Daugavpils University is represented by the professor Dzintra Iliško and the leading researcher Eridiana Oļehnoviča.