12 dic 2022 - 10:39 CET

As part of a new teaching innovation project developed as a follow-up to the Complutense University of Madrid’s 2021-2022 project in which many of you participated (comparative study on the teaching of mediation at higher education institutions), we are conducting this comparative study focused on transversal competencies. Experiencing higher education and university provides an opportunity for learning that can affect the established curriculum and challenge university culture and those who are part of it.

Our intention on this occasion is to assess the need to include a transversal subject that covers negotiation, a culture of peace and alternative conflict resolution systems. This subject would be made available to any university student regardless of what they are studying.

Transversal competencies reinforce the guiding principles and values of study plans. These competencies should be acquired by the time undergraduate studies have been completed. However, universities generally offer students the opportunity to study supplementary courses that reinforce these transversal competencies. Certain characteristics of these transversal subjects affect their structure. For example, transversal subjects are elective at UCM and do not form part of the study programme. The university offers them as supplementary training, worth 3 ECTS.

In the context of this structure, we would like to identify what we know about transversal subjects, whether there are any transversal conflict management subjects at your institution and, if so, how they are managed. We also want to know how you think a transversal collaborative conflict management subject should ideally be structured.

We are proposing that you complete the attached survey, which is aimed at teachers and academics in the fields of mediation and conflict resolution. It will provide valuable information to help us continue to improve mediation and conflict resolution teaching and to promote a series of values, attitudes and behaviours that reject violence and tackle conflict through dialogue and negotiation: in short, to promote a culture of peace.

Participation in this study is voluntary and confidential. If you do not complete the survey, none of your data will be included in the study. If you decide to complete the survey, your data will be presented in summarised and anonymised form.

The study findings will be published in 2023 on the laboratory website: Dispute Resolution Lab DRL.

Many thanks for your time.