NEW STRATEGIES FOR THE APPROACH TO THE SOCIETY DEMANDS OF THE FINAL DEGREE PROJECTS IN THE UNIVERSITY DEGREE IN CHEMISTRY

Professional profile of graduates in Chemistry aims to cover the needs required by companies in the industrial sector where graduates will develop their professional careers. Final Degree Projects offer to the students an opportunity to apply the received theoretical contents and the acquired competences. Moreover, the Final Degree Project allows them to demonstrate their training as a professional. However, the topics covered by these projects are sometimes far from the demands and interests of industrial companies and, therefore, away from real society problems. The workplace is the environment where the graduates face real problems, where they must apply what they have learned in the different areas of knowledge and the transversal competences acquired. Therefore, there is a need to connect the Final Degree Project with society. With this aim, a teaching innovation network was created whose main objective was the analysis of the Final Degree Project, to adapt them, improve them and bring them closer to the interests of society. The working methodology was based on the deep review of the topics proposed in the Final Degree Projects in the Analytical Chemistry area in the Degree of Chemistry of the University of Alicante. A collaboration network was established with the regional chemical companies. A series of surveys was completed by the companies. The main objective of the forms was to collect information about the analytical techniques of interest, types of samples of interest, analytes of interest, knowledge of official standards, use of computer programs, etc. Moreover, an analysis of the topics proposed for the Final Degree Project from an academic point of view was carried out in parallel. As conclusion, it could be deduced that as professors, we tend to value the transference of the theoretical and transversal competences, the repercussion and innovations of the Final Degree Project, but we do not consider the contribution to the industrial competences and society concerns.