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URV

Strategic Plan for Teaching

Presentation

The main purpose of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), as well as to generate knowledge, is to educate individuals. The ability to adapt to change must be inherent to the institution's approach. The last strategic plan for teaching, approved in 2003, began in this way but, since then, there have been many changes. The students are different, more diverse, they need to find a study-life balance and have a different set of values. Methodologies and tools have also changed: a clear example is the emergence of artificial intelligence, with all its corresponding opportunities and fears. The importance of teaching by faculty members is also changing: for instance, the Organic Law of the university system now requires new teaching staff to have been trained as teachers. Therefore, to adapt to these changes the University requires a new strategic plan.

This strategic plan reviews our educational model, reconsiders the courses on offer and aims to improve the employability of our students.

This plan is structured around three pillars. The first focuses on the teaching model to be implemented. Part of the URV's identity has always been personal interaction with students so we plan to adopt a student-centred approach in which we will accompany and guide them in their learning, using diversity and teaching methodologies to support a comprehensive education. The second strategic pillar focuses on the courses on offer, which need to be reviewed and adapted to the current and future needs of society. We aim for a complete, interdisciplinary education that is at once international and respectful of local development. This local connection is also very present in the third strategic pillar, which aims to enhance the employability of students by facilitating connections with companies, giving them enriching experiences in the socio-economic context, providing guidance, and promoting entrepreneurship. This approach is the result of the joint efforts of numerous members of the university community: units and services; faculties and schools; students; teaching staff; management, technical and administrative staff; and executives. Firmly convinced that working together is the way to make most progress, we rise to the challenge of this Strategic Plan for Teaching.

Montse Pinent Armengol
Vice-rector for Teaching Projects and Students

Mission

To train people so that they are prepared for professional practice, engage in lifelong learning and commit to the improvement of society, scientific progress and the generation of knowledge.

Vision

To achieve excellence in higher-education teaching and learning processes, provide the highest level of lifelong learning and contribute to the development of professionals and citizens.

Values

  • Place the student at the centre of the learning process.
  • Reinforce the culture of active, significant and deep learning.
  • Commit to generating collaborative experiences throughout the University community.
  • Promote equality, inclusion, respect for diversity, solidarity, peace and environmental sustainability.
  • Propose quality courses connected to the territory.
  • Encourage critical thinking and lifelong learning.
  • Contribute to the sustainable progress of the region and society by training the professionals of the future.


Strategic pillars and goals

Strategic pillar 1. Teaching model

  • Goal 1. Encourage students to adopt an active role from the beginning to the end of their study programme so that they have a comprehensive education experience.

  • Goal 2. Generate motivating learning experiences that provide comprehensive education and are aligned with the expected learning outcomes.

  • Goal 3. Implement an inclusive and flexible teaching model that incorporates universal design for learning and is aligned with sustainable development goals.

  • Goal 4. Critically integrate educational technology to enrich teaching and learning processes in face-to-face, blended and online contexts.

  • Goal 5. Create the Framework for Academic Teaching Development structured in dimensions or levels and linked to teaching innovation.

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Strategic pillar 2. Course offer

  • Goal 1. Establish a strategy to develop the course offer.

  • Goal 2. Increase the use of Catalan in teaching.

  • Goal 3. Promote the Internationalisation of the course offer.

  • Goal 4. Reinforce pre-university guidance and the promotion of the course offer.

  • Goal 5. Encourage participation in community projects.

+ Information

Strategic pillar 3. Employability

  • Goal 1. Increase the relationship between employers and the University, and make it more agile and effective.

  • Goal 2. Incorporate and develop teaching and learning methodologies applied to the work context.

  • Goal 3. Reinforce guidance, the professional career and entrepreneurship.

  • Goal 4. Improve the monitoring of graduates.

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Main actions

  • Engage in actions of emotional well-being that promote health and community culture.
  • Incorporate interdisciplinarity in the planning, coordination and design of subjects and learning experiences (projects, practical cases, service learning, bachelor's/master's degree thesis, etc.).
  • Provide students with greater support, especially in the 1st year, to facilitate adaptation and success.
  • Ensure that the teaching staff are up to date with technological and methodological advances, especially artificial intelligence with working groups, teaching innovation groups or commissions and draft a training plan.
  • Encourage the involvement of the socio-economic fabric and local institutions to detect needs, define the course offer, design degrees and subjects, promote teaching innovation projects and study programmes on research and technology transfer, among others.
  • Reinforce the link with the pre-university stages by engaging in coordination initiatives or projects to disseminate knowledge or support vocations, in collaboration with the socio-economic fabric.
  • Provide the university community, citizens and social entities with dissemination, awareness-raising and transformation activities. 
  • Increase contact with local employers to improve teaching, methodologies, qualifications and the courses on offer at the URV.
  • Encourage students to take part in learning projects carried out in conjunction with the productive fabric (dual training, work experience, internships, challenges, industrial doctorates).
  • Provide students with activities on career guidance and their professional career so that they can plan their careers, identify their professional and training objectives and how to achieve them, and develop skills that maximise their potential.


Main measures of achievement

The URV must have

  • set up the Unit of Diversity and Welfare,
  • created the network of interdisciplinarity,
  • organised a catalogue of resources and strategies for teaching and research staff to provide students with greater support so that they can acquire the wide range of skills required of URV students,
  • created the URV's artificial intelligence network to monitor good practices and design courses for the teaching and research staff,
  • set up a virtual space for employers that enables them to contact the University and advertise the services they offer,
  • created a support structure for linking with pre-university stages,
  • increased the number of research staff involved in communicating and disclosing science
  • prepared an action plan for the Employment Observatory to become an obligatory point of reference for those seeking employment in southern Catalonia,
  • progressively increased the number of students who engage in non-compulsory placements in real contexts (work experience, optional and extra-curricular internships, etc.), and
  • prepared a catalogue of guidance training activities.