Relationship between subject-specific and generic competences: Evidence from survey on Japanese universities

高等教育

レリバンス

カリキュラムデザイン

チューニング

Competencies

Higher Education

Relevance

Curriculum Design

Tuning

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between subject-specific competencies (SSC) and generic competencies (GRC) using the results of a questionnaire survey conducted in 2015, which asked students, academic staff, and graduates of Japanese universities about graduates’ SSC in six university subjects and GRC. The empirical results show that recognition of SSC and GRC has a positive relationship with different levels of correlation among stakeholders and subjects; the relationship in students shows relatively weak ties compared with that of other stakeholders, as well as that of both Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering subjects. Factor analysis indicates the existence of factors that impact both SSC and GRC in all subjects with heterogeneous structures by subjects; five fields excluding Business have fewer relationships based on commonalities between SSC and GRC such as information and communication technology skills and internationalization, but Business has a closely intertwined relationship between SSC and GRC.

English(eng)