¿En qué medida las experiencias universitarias transfronterizas ayudan en el desarrollo de competencias transversales? Un estudio cualitativo

The European Commission has been supporting and financing the European Cross-Border Skills project since 2017. The aim is to identify the skills developed by the university community in different geographical cross-border locations. Within this framework, the research presented is contextualized in the New Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarre Euro-region, which brings together the Spanish-French territories surrounding the Gulf of Biscay. This study aims to investigate the transversal skills that the university community of the UPV/EHU develops through cross-border experiences to understanding and reflecting on their contributions, in order to pay attention to the value of their development. The methodological approach is interpretative and articulated through the case study. There were 27 participants, including students (undergraduate and postgraduate), teaching staff and administrative and service personnel of the UPV/EHU. Semi-structured interviews and discussion groups have been used as information collection instruments. The analysis procedure consisted in the construction of an emerging category system where the voices of the participants are the support of the categories. It is concluded that competence analysis is complex and that its division only makes sense on an analytical level, with the aim of reaching a greater understanding of the nuances of competences. Nevertheless, people blend the competencies in their accounts and this makes evident their interdependence and interconnection in the broad context of life experience.