Researchers, educators, and enthusiasts met at the UG Library for the annual ‘FarU Quality Day’ conference on the quality of education. The programme of this year's edition was dominated by transversal competencies and the perspective of their consideration in everyday teaching practice. There was also an employer's perspective, discussed by practitioners from the business environment.

The meeting was inaugurated by UG Vice-Rector for Education dr Ewa Szymczak, prof. UG, welcoming guests to the thresholds of the university organising the third edition of the conference. The Director of The Fahrenheit Union of Universities in Gdańsk, prof. dr hab. inż Adriana Zaleska-Medynska also spoke. She emphasised the significant impact such events have on building synergy, which is one of the foundations of the Association.

Quality comes first

The first panel began with prof. Agnieszka Zimmermann, putting forward the thesis of the need to equip students, and therefore future graduates and employees, with transversal skills. Dr Jarosław Jendza from the Centre for Didactic Improvement and Tutoring at UG spoke more extensively about this challenge, the mission of the university and the approach to education.

Dr. Joanna Mytnik, prof. GdańskTech from the Centre for Modern Education, spoke about the impact of global changes (such as pandemics) on competence mapping and educational methods. She drew attention to the incidental, haptic and networked learning that dominates today. She also encouraged the use of meta-reflective learning methods, self-assessment and the practice of feedback including appreciation (not just criticism).

Dr hab. Krzysztof Sobczak from the MUG's Department of Sociology of Medicine and Medical Communication began his presentation by attempting to simplify the broad notion of transversal competence to a set of skills, knowledge and attitudes that enable adaptation to emerging problems and challenges.

The student perspective was presented by Kamil Szefler, Eng, a student at the Gdansk University of Technology. He emphasised the institution's support for students and talked about his path of development in and out of academia, including studying through an individual study organisation.

Competence development among students

The next part of the meeting was chaired by dr Barbara Wikiel, prof. GdańskTech, and the opening lecture of the session was devoted to the activities of scientific circles. Dr Anna Szablewska from the Department of Obstetric-Gynaecological Nursing (MUG) presented the benefits and advantages of activating students through scientific club activities, pointing out the self-perpetuating nature of this model of cooperation and knowledge transfer.

An innovative perspective on the quality of education was presented by dr Wacław Kulczykowski from the Department of History Education of the UG, creator of two scientific computer games (‘Excavate!’ and ‘Waterworks!’), which have already been played by more than 2 million people worldwide. Dr W. Kulczykowski spoke briefly about how games are used at UG to train future teachers, educators, popularisers and game designers - e.g. as part of the newly created course Designing historical games.

Dr inż. Krzysztof Nowicki, prof. GdańskTech (Chair of ICT at GdańskTech), meanwhile, talked about how GdańskTech has developed a model for shaping and implementing student projects.

Realisation of the Fahrenheit Champions of Cooperation projects

In the next panel, the winners of the 2nd edition of the Fahrenheit Champions of Cooperation competition presented the results of project work supported by the Fahrenheit Universities as part of the annual competition of scientific circles. The idea and results were discussed in relation to the projects:

• In pursuit of a new antifungal drug - Partricin B vs Amphotericin B
• BrainSync
• Turn on the Yellow Overpass
• Thank you, Body

Competence through the eyes of employers

The speeches in the last part of the conference were dedicated to the employer's perspective. The first one, led by the Managing Director of O4 Coworking Marta Moxa, was a dose of knowledge about seeking development opportunities in the labour market, but above all about identifying one's own needs and building self-awareness in the professional sphere. In turn, prof. dr hab. Mariusz Siemiński from the Department of Emergency Medicine (MUG and UCK) and UCK Deputy Chief HR Officer Piotr Ciborski discussed in detail the goals, implementation process, and benefits of introducing the Physician Assistant function.

Talent Attraction Team Manager from Invest in Pomerania Monika Stokfisz discussed what competencies determine career success. The presentation corresponded with the issues and challenges raised by the previous speakers, while at the same time providing a dose of valuable suggestions and insights based on the experience of our region's economic and business environment.