CHEPS

DASCHE: Development and Assessment of Social Competences in Higher Education

Preparation for work and for life as active citizens in a democratic society are major purposes of higher education. Including the social competences needed for that in the teaching/learning process is difficult. Social competences are multidimensional, comprehending under this single term a variety of learning outcomes concerning professional, work, ethical, cultural, group and civic oriented attitudes of learners; often being meta-competences, which cannot be seen independently from knowledge and skills. Higher education institutions and national level policy makers need assistance in designing, delivering and validating social competences of students. The systems of internal and external quality evaluation and assurance face the same difficulty, as European-level frameworks and national quality assurance agencies often do not provide sufficient guidance. The DASCHE project seeks to respond to these needs, endeavouring to develop knowledge and tools to address social competences issues. DASCHE aims to support policy learning between countries and higher education institutions in curriculum development, assessment and validation of social competences of students.

The project is implemented in partnership of Universität Bremen (Germany), Akademiskas Informacijas Centrs (Latvia), Centrum Pro Studium Vysokeho Skolstvi, V.V.I. (Czech Republic), University of Durham (United Kingdom), CHEPS at the Universiteit Twente (Netherlands), SGH Warsaw School of Economic (Poland, project leader). Contact person at CHEPS is Don Westerheijden.

The DASCHE project will last 32 months (September 2017 – April 2020). The project website is: http://dasche.eu.