The social dimension of higher education seems to have been highlighted in the most recent documents of the European Higher Education Area. Furthermore, the interest in providing future graduates with the competences necessary for their future jobs seems to have grown in recent decades. In this context, the key questions are what social competences could help graduates to enter the world of work and how universities can facilitate the development of such competences. In the present article, we clarify the role of civic and social competence in university education and offer some guidelines to orientate their learning. To address these objectives, the present study is divided into five parts. First, we define what we understand as civic or citizen competence. In the second part, we describe the reasons why we consider that the learning of civic competence may occur in different settings (formal, informal, or non-formal) of university life. We propose character education and integrated learning (IL) as promising approaches to foster civic learning in the third and fourth sections. Finally, we offer recommendations on how university leaders and professors might promote civic or citizenship competence.

A renewed interest in the study of character and virtue has recently emerged in the fields of Education and Psychology. The latest research has confirmed the association between virtuous consistent behaviours and academic positive outcomes. However, the motivational dimension of character (the intentions underlying the patterns of observed behaviours) has received little attention. This research aims to extend the knowledge on this topic by examining the predictive relationships between the behavioural and motivational dimensions of character, with reference to academic engagement, career self-doubt and performance of Spanish university students. A total of 183 undergraduates aged 18-30 (142 of whom were women) from the north of Spain completed specific parts of self-report questionnaires, including the Values in Action VIA-72, a Spanish translated and validated version of the Moral Self-Relevance Measure MSR, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Student Scale UWES-S9. The collected data were analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. The behavioural dimension of character (character strength factors of caring, self-control and inquisitiveness) showed positive associations with academic engagement and performance. The motivational dimension of character (phronesis motivation), was negatively related to career self-doubt. For the first time, the present study has provided support for the contribution of both dimensions of character to undergraduate academic outcomes.

En este capítulo se ofrece una revisión de la literatura relacionada con el tema de la educación del carácter en la universidad. Su objetivo es ofrecer al lector una visión panorámica de los conceptos clave relacionados con el carácter y los medios que favorecen su educación en el ámbito universitario. Muchos de estos conceptos han sido elaborados y difundidos mayormente en lengua inglesa. Se presenta al lector interesado el contacto con la referida literatura internacional. El capítulo está estructurado en cuatro secciones. En la primera sección se introduce el tema de la educación del carácter y su importancia en la actualidad. En la segunda parte se define el concepto de carácter y se complementa dicha definición con las más recientes teorías psicológicas acerca de su estudio y medición empírica. En la tercera sección se exponen los modos a través de los cuales se considera que es posible educar el carácter en la universidad. Se incluyen referencias de iniciativas internacionales que promueven este objetivo. Finalmente, el capítulo cierra con una reflexión acerca de las perspectivas futuras de la educación del carácter y los desafíos que ella enfrenta para el futuro.