Mondragon University

Quality Link Project Partner

Who we are

Mondragon University (MU) was created in 1997 promoted by three educational cooperatives endorsed by an extensive trajectory and experience in teaching which dates back to 1943. At present, 4 faculties constitute it: Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Business, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Gastronomic Sciences. MU’s activity is distributed in 9 campuses located in the Basque Country and 8 entrepreneurship laboratories, 4 of them in Spain and 4 in China, India, Mexico, and Korea. Altogether, the university has 6.400 undergraduate, master, and doctoral students, over 7.000 professionals in continuous education and around 1.000 staff.
 
MU has its own innovative educational model designed to respond to the new needs of society. A model based on a multidisciplinary approach, in which, in addition to the technical skills of the disciplines, soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication, problem solving, decision making, etc., are incorporated in the curricula facilitated using active learning methodologies, such as Problem and Project Based Learning, among others.

Why are we participating in the project

The development of the dual/binomial academic – practical training constitutes one of the main characteristics of Mondragon University and a key component in student engagement. This relationship is materialised through different mechanisms: carrying out joint research projects, participation of companies in the government boards of the university and the faculties, continuing education offered by the university, students’ internships and final year projects in companies and other organizations as well as work-based learning.
 
Our learning model involves a system of relationships with which the educational system as the central theme, aims to involve companies and institutions, to guarantee social accessibility, the combination of work and study, the development of research and the provision of continuing education. Research also constitutes a differentiating element of MU, having developed a model of collaborative research with a long-term relationship with companies. Internationalization and student mobility began more than 30 years ago in MU, but this activity is becoming more and more important, with the participation in the Erasmus+ Programme and by incrementing the collaboration agreements with different universities around the world. The university offers students the opportunity to have an international experience through many different programmes. More than 1.000 students are involved in mobility each year and over 50% of graduates have had an international experience during their studies.

Our role in the project

Mondragon has lead responsibility for certain stakeholder and community engagement activities, in particular the consultation of students and other stakeholders on quality domains and indicators with a view to ranking their relevance. Together with DHBW, Mondragon is also closely involved in piloting the implementation of standards across higher education institutions, in particular within the EU4Dual alliance, which Mondragon coordinates.