ACQUISITION OF COMPETENCES IN A MASTER DEGREE IN CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

Competences are specific statements that describe what students are expected to know and know how upon completion of the program. These competences are related to skills, knowledge and abilities that students acquire as they progress in their studies. Their importance is crucial because most of the current accreditation models are based on the assessment of competences. In this line, the Master of Science in Planning and Management in Civil Engineering at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia needed to evaluate the competences of their graduates in order to comply with an accreditation by an external body (Spanish ANECA). For this purpose, the Academic Head of the Master Degree developed a survey among its graduates using a five point Likert scale. Twenty six questionnaires (out of a population of 72) were returned and analyzed. According to the respondents, the basic competences were reached (4.4 average out of 5.0), the specific competences got values between 3.7 and 4.5 average (out of 5.0), and the general competences obtained a 4.3 average (out of 5.0). The paper describes the characteristics of the respondents, the sample, the questions and scale used, and analyzes the results in the context of the Master Degree. Some recommendations for future improvement are also drawn.