Abstract

The educational changes which have been carried out at University level to build the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) imply not only a great structural change, but also a new approach to teaching/learning and therefore, a redefinition of roles and competences in both lecturers and students. In this study we analyse the professional profile requested by EHEA. It is obvious that in any innovation process teachers/lecturers always take an important role, since the goals will only be achieved if they are willing to abandon their traditional role as information transmitters —through master classes— and assume the changes in the competences level, adopting a positive attitude towards new technologies, showing a great deal of interest in their long-term training (lifelong learning), in order to know the technological advances accordingly, bring the syllabuses up to date, so as to go on being the main responsible for the global teaching/learning process. We also consider the new role assigned to students as constructors of their own learning, instead of being passive recipients of the knowledge shared by the lecturers. So, to accomplish this, they require a high motivation, deliberation, critical mind, and they also need to be more flexible and conscious of their achievements and challenges.