Keywords

1 Introduction

In recent decades much has been written on transversal skills and competences, particularly in terms of their significance for one’s personal development, influence on future employability, possible modes of implementation in curricula, enrichment of legal education etc.Footnote 1 Despite the number of significant contributions, frequently used synonyms for this term such as ‘soft skills’, ‘twenty-first century skills’, ‘core skills’, ‘transferable skills’ and ‘skills for life’ etc., maintain its pervasive ambiguity.Footnote 2 After analyzing a variety of definitions,Footnote 3 for the purpose of this research we accepted the universal determination—‘transversal skills and competences (TSCs) are learned and proven abilities which are commonly seen as necessary or valuable for effective action in virtually any kind of work, learning or life activity. They are “transversal” because they are not exclusively related to any particular context (job, occupation, academic discipline, civic or community engagement, occupational sector, group of occupational sectors, etc.)’.Footnote 4 Despite the literal divergence on the meaning of this concept, the necesity and utility of transversal skills and competences for “one life many careers” instead of up until the recently dominant “one life-one career” style of life, has never been an issue.Footnote 5

When it comes to acquiring legal knowledge, different teaching method(s) applied throughout the existing curricula that consists of readymade courses dealing with law, can improve different students’ transversal skills.Footnote 6A flexible and active teaching approach that is more oriented towards solving real-world challenges could (and should) enhance learning and students’ motivation and participation.Footnote 7 A reconfiguration of teaching strategies will allow students to take part in courses that will have practical, obvious social, environmental, political and economic implications. In the same time this will also improve their transversal skills and competences.Footnote 8 Moving beyond the classroom, the traditional results-oriented higher education culture is changing towards adaptive and competences-oriented teaching and learning.Footnote 9

We are aware that the process of improving law studies is quite complex and multidimensional. Besides the incorporation of transversal competences in the curricula and the willingness of students to take part, professors also need to be encouraged to redefine and enrich their method of teaching in different aspects.Footnote 10 As Tsaoussi notes, this “cultural paradigm shift” will help overcome the gap between “law in books” and “law in action”.

At the same time, it will meet important pedagogical objectives such as understanding of social values. For instance tolerance, solidarity, democratic dialogue, and sustainable development of creativity, problem-solving abilities, emotional intelligence, etc.Footnote 11 In other words, in formatting an integral insight of reality, human values will be developed as well as students’ personality and creativity.Footnote 12 To achieve this aim, professors need to be willing to design a learner-oriented educational environment and to accept their role as facilitators. Tsankov also points out, and we agree, that changing contemporary teacher profiles will “turn them from monopolists of knowledge into mediators between information chaos and organized knowledge“.Footnote 13 In this way, universities foster interaction with students and encourage their active participation with an aim to minimize academic failure.Footnote 14

2 Sample

We started this research by providing the sample, that was the basis for our further work and analysis. The sample that we used for our research was made of 472 students from the Faculty of Law, the University of Belgrade, out of which 66,5% were females and approximately half of this percentage were males (33.5%). As it is presented in Table 1, when the questionnaires were filled in 2022, the majority of students attended the first year of studies (40.9%), whereas the least of them were the final year of undergraduate studies (15.9%). The sample is representative, since the number of open places on the Faculty of Law University of Belgrade for freshmen is 1500, and it is quite common that the number of students who enroll every second year is less than half of the freshmen.

Table 1 Characteristics of interviewees in the sample
Full size table

3 Main Findings and Discussion

Inspired by the survey conducted among the MELE (Modernising European Legal Education) partner institutions, on the sample of professors of law faculties (see Chap. 2), which identifies the status on teaching transversal competences in legal studies, we decided to learn more on students’ perspectives. This online survey was launched in May/June in 2022 with two main aims—to learn more about: (1) students’ perspectives on representation and development of transversal skills and competences at the faculty and outside it and (2) diversity and representation of teaching methods that could enhance the level of transversal competences, also from the students’ perspectives.

3.1 Students’ Assessment: Transversal Competences at the Faculty and Outside It

Since the Bologna Process was initiated in 1999, development of transversal skills and competences was recognised as one of the learning outcomes in the sphere of higher education.Footnote 15 As it was previously emphasized, these so called ‘transferable skills’ represent one of the essential outcomes of the teaching process and learning and as such, it plays an important role in later employment and life in general. Taking into consideration the nature and essence of these competencies, it is important to point out that they do not have to be developed solely at the faculty as formal education setting, but they can be acquired outside it in various ways. This is exactly why we asked the students to estimate the level in which they developed a certain competence in the category of transversal competences at the faculty and outside it (Table 2).

Table 2 Transversal skills at faculty and outside it
Full size table

We will commence with the crucial question: what do students consider they learn and have learned the most, and what the least, at the Faculty of Law? The students point out the capability for critical and self-critical reasoning as the most developed at the faculty whereas they emphasize the knowledge of legal terminology in foreign language as the least developed in this context. Although it could be hypothesized at first that, within this category (the competencies acquired at the Faculty of Law, which concern transversal skills and competences), the students would primarily choose those skills and competences that are strictly linked to the legal profession (e.g., capability of legal analysis and synthesis, capability to make a legal argument, etc.), the empirically obtained result is unsurprising having in mind the current high valuation of critical opinion development as an educational goal. According to Henri Pettersson this educational standard is basically an „educational ideal … behind all teaching“, or, as he underlines “an antidote for… increasing political apathy among the youth”.Footnote 17 Therefore, it might be expected that the students evaluate that such skill is developed during classes at their faculty.

The significance of critical reasoning development is perceived in management and selection regarding a multitude of information received daily, in autonomous reasoning and recognition of omnipresent manipulation strategies. Thus, students think that their professors at the faculty teach them to critically evaluate information, which consequently influences the formation of their value system. This skill represents the backbone of a democratic society, since citizens are responsible and informed, who ponder and re-examine not only their own decisions and behaviors, but also social processes and models.Footnote 18

In the survey and follow-up research dealing with standpoints and opinions of university professors about development and importance of transversal skills, included within the MELE project, critical thinking, is evaluated as extremely important (according to 90% of teaching staff), but remarkably lower number (58% of the teaching staff) consider that it is actually being developed (see Chap. 2). This discrepancy occurs in the findings, since professors estimate that the competence mostly developed at the faculty within the teaching content is Ethical commitment and not the capability of critical and self-critical reasoning. It tells us about different insights and perspectives of students and professors in view of the contents transmitted during lessons as well as of the need to possibly have additional categorization of transversal skills in the context that some of them possibly represent meta-components i.e., that they are superior and preconditioned for other skills. It is certainly necessary to examine the professors’ population in the Serbian sample to enable more valid extrapolation of results.

As for the least developed competence, i.e. knowledge of legal terminology in a foreign language, in line with the prior obtained results that almost 100% of the students’ population speak English,Footnote 19 it seems that is there are reasonable grounds to include certain English-based literature into the curricula. According to the Council Recommendation (2018), multilingual competence—communication as a non-native language—represents one of the key competencies that need to be learnt and developed so that an individual would lead not only a fulfilled and productive life but also to adapt successfully to various types of changes.Footnote 20 Therefore, in university settings, language skills, implying knowledge of one or more foreign languages, could enable a student to read and understand texts in that specific language, to communicate (verbally or in writing, formally or informally) with colleagues from other countries thus opening opportunities for international cooperation, expanding the range of possible sources from which knowledge is acquired, improving oneself as well as learning about different cultures simultaneously respecting their diversity. In this way the professional development of students will be enriched and cross-cultural communication will be facilitated.Footnote 21

As for professors included in the Survey conducted within the project “Modernisation of the European legal education”, 63% of interviewees find the knowledge of legal terminology in a foreign language as very important, while less than 40% considers that this competence is developed during lectures (see Chap. 2). This finding is in accordance with the percent of students in our sample, who also find this skill as the least developed at the faculty.

3.1.1 What is the Relationship Between Transversal Skills Acquired at and Outside the Faculty?

The results indicate that the average values of the variables “transversal skills and competences acquired at the university” and “transversal skills and competences acquired outside the university” positively corelate to moderate intensity, which further means that the majority of students who have acquired and are still acquiring transversal skills and competences at the university also acquire these skills outside of the university.

Furthermore, it has been shown that the average grade achieved by the students so far in their studies is positively correlated with transversal skills and competences acquired at the university and transversal skills acquired outside the university. In practice this means that those who have higher GPAs acquire more transversal skills in both settings. Such results tell us not only about the importance of including the acquisition of transversal skills in every domain of functioning, but also that their acquisition concerns internal personal factors, characteristics such as motivation, enthusiasm, creativity, ability and willingness to try new practices, etc.Footnote 22

3.2 Students’ Assessment of Representation of Teaching Methods

Table 3 shows the percentages of each of the teaching methods that should be developed within formal forms of teaching. First-year students mostly point out that they encountered independent oral presentations, and the majority of responses were gathered around the option “often”, 33.2%. These students rarely encountered working on case studies and role playing (56.5%), while 43.5% of them reported that they had not encountered these methods at all. Among students of the second, third and fourth year of undergraduate studies, this pattern of familiarity with the mentioned methods continues, with a noticeable slight increase in knowledge of each of them in each subsequent year.

Table 3 Methods developed within formal forms of teaching in terms of the year of study
Full size table

It is important to point out the results were, to some extent, expected considering the fact that students are mostly familiar with the method of independent oral presentation and, given that in their daily classes they are constantly faced with not only providing answers orally, but also presenting papers in that manner, followed by pre-examination obligations, oral examinations, etc. On the other hand, the low representation of encounters with role-playing and working on case studies may be a suggestion to the teaching staff to include such types of methods in their repertoire of working with students.

3.3 Transversal Competences Outside Regular Forms of Teaching

Table 4 presents a clear pattern of the students’ selection of offered transversal competencies they exercise the most: attending seminars, conferences, training. The table encompasses all years of undergraduate studies. It should be taken into account that the most frequently marked option among first and third year students on this variable is “sometimes”, while among second and fourth year students the option “rarely” appears as the most frequent. This structure of answers was probably due to the fact that this form of extracurricular activity is easily available to students through various sources and advertisers at the college (recommendations of professors, announcements of the student parliament, invitations from various organizations to participate in seminars, etc.) and thus makes this form of engagement close to their experience.

Table 4 Transversal competences outside regular forms of teaching in terms of the year of study
Full size table

In contrast to this, the competences assessed as the least developed are participation in the work of the legal clinic among first-year students (which is logical considering their level of study), while among the students of second, third and fourth years of study, the least developed in non-faculty setting is volunteering in other non-governmental organizations. Once again, the question of the availability of information about this type of proactive work arises. Opportunities to learn about the work of non-governmental organizations can be assumed to be insufficient, or at least not easily available.

3.3.1 What is the Relationship Between Learning Methods and Extracurricular Activities?

Significant positive correlations were found between learning methods and extracurricular activities, which means that the more respondents agreed to use different learning methods, the more they agreed to participate in extracurricular activities. Also, those students with higher GPAs generally use a greater range of learning methods and participate in more extracurricular activities, while those with lower averages take up fewer learning methods and participate seldom in extracurricular activities. Such findings highlight the need to try as many variable teaching methods as possible in order to motivate students with a lower average. This can lead not only to a higher grade (and interest), but also to a greater and better acquisition of transversal skills outside the teaching context, which consequently opens a wider range of possibilities when accessing the labor market.

4 Conclusion and Recommendation

Besides the theoretical contribution, this explorative research conducted on the sample taken at the biggest Faculty of Law in Serbia, as part of the University of Belgrade, had a couple of practical—in our opinion—even more important implications. First, the obtained results helped in mapping the gaps of the current (traditional) model of law teaching, from the students’ perspective, which require further improvement. Revising the existing teaching methods could help create a stronger connection between the two worlds that are mutually intertwined: education, on the one side, and labor market, on the other.Footnote 23 In this way, our students would be taught professional competences, that are”always appreciated, but … not always sufficient for getting hired”, as well as transversal skills and competences, which might be needed even more.Footnote 24 Having in mind that employers in contemporary business value transversal skills and competences for the success of professional work, modern higher education institutions have to foster them as well as to work on their development more.Footnote 25

Second, as competence development is a shared European and national policy goal,Footnote 26 the results could be used as a basis for further research on students’ learning aspirations, motivation, and capacities. As the educational process is not a one-way street, „the shift from teaching to learning” requires shared responsibility for the educational process between teachers and learners.Footnote 27 We have already empirically found more on the experience of the professors (see Chap. 2), so to mitigate the traditional discrepancy students need to be involved equally as effective partners.Footnote 28 In other words, students are not being seen as an object, but rather as a subject of education who can engage in the learning process independently and actively with an aim to gain and expand multidisciplinary knowledge.Footnote 29

Last but not least, and probably most important is that, after analyzing the results, we started rethinking and questioning current educational aims at our Faculty as well as possibilities of our students to learn throughout existing courses.Footnote 30 Formal education can be more effective when is complemented with particular personal abilities of students. Therefore new findings induced the structural change in a form of non-formal bottom-up initiative.Footnote 31 Accepting the fact that we don’t nurture, nor promote transversal skills and competences enough, we started changing academic culture by institutionalizing the workshops on different transversal skills. These “baby steps” were materialized through an online platform “Programs for quality and efficient studying”Footnote 32 where students apply for nine interactive workshops which are being organized occasionally. This platform was launched in September 2022, as part of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law optional activity and was supported by the Institute for Legal and Social Sciences.Footnote 33 Even in its initial phase it proved that students are indeed interested in a more practical approach to learning in addition to the faculty’s formal curricula that their Faculty offers. The program’s educational courses focused on the development of practical and transversal competencies from the very beginning of the legal education, i.e. from the first year of studies. In the first cycle, a total of 1040 applications were received (for all the courses combined). Having in mind that students had the option to apply for as much as workshops as they were interested in, around 350 students participated. These numbers could serve, firstly, as an indicator that this type of education and courses are more in demand among students, our main target group; and secondly, they could serve as a strong guideline for the future gradual shifting focus of teaching methods and curricula content, in accordance with the findings presented in this research.