Competency-based curriculum design process from the institutional diagnosis

Abstract

Curricular updating in Salvadoran Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is intended to generate a process that ensures the relevance of the comprehensive training of university graduates. This procedure requires the participation of the actors involved in the educational processes and the generation of communication channels to encourage feedback and effective participation. The objective of this study was to understand the processes implemented for updating curriculum at a HEI. The research methodology was descriptive and qualitative, selecting for data collection a self-administered, open-ended questionnaire addressed to four coordinators and one vice-dean participating in the curricular upgrading process of the HEI. The results obtained indicate that the representatives from the five surveyed faculties respect and comply with the criteria stipulated in the National Directorate of Higher Education's (NDHE) manual; however, during the implementation of the update process, no institutional standardization was evident regarding internal procedures. The conclusions highlight the need to unify the curricular updating processes with the institution’s educational model, establishing the requirements for the design, execution, and evaluation of curricula to better guarantee an academic offering tailored to the needs of the context.