The creativity in spanish higher education A critical analysis of curricula, lecturing activity and professional sector requirements in audiovisual communication, advertising and public relations bachelor’s degrees

Abstract

Creativity is a widely studied skill and understood as an essential capacity for human development, especially in educational and professional performance. Since the entry into force of the European Higher Education Area, it has been considered a transversal competence in most university degrees, especially in Communication. The aim of this article is to identify the approach to creativity in all the subjects taught in the Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and Public Relations degrees in Spanish public universities. Thus, an analysis of the contents of the teaching guides of the curricula, a questionnaire to teachers of these degrees and a panel of experts from the professional sector have been carried out, who have reflected on the training and creative skills of the new graduates.
The results indicate that, despite being considered a transversal and necessary quality for new professionals, creativity is not treated as such in the teaching guides. Although some of them contain terms related to this ability, in the rest of the programmes it is hardly present. This corroborates the gap between the needs of the professional sector and undergraduate university training, as young graduates show significant deficiencies in terms of creative capacity.