Student's Perceptions of Ethics as a Generic Competence in Higher Education

Abstract

Nowadays, university students must achieve several generic and specific competences during

their studies and among these competences we find ethics. Given that a new economic model is

possible through the “bio-economy” approach - which holds up that the economic development

should be sustainable and should outline non-economic factors (such as fraternity, altruism, ...)

- business ethics becomes not only important and desirable but even a must. We have also to

point out that university students will be the decision-makers of the future and they should be

committed with ethics. Our aim is to find out what is their perception of ethics in relation with

its importance in the labour market, the role of university in helping them to achieve this

competence and their self-assessment on this competence. This paper presents the results of an

exploratory analysis about ethics as a generic competence for Business Administration students

in a Spanish University. Our proposal is to study this competence in different degrees and its

relevance in relation to other generic competences.