The higher education system in Europe has been changing profoundly - structurally and programmatically - over the last two decades. Since the Bologna Process great emphasis has been placed on university students’ competencies and skills, key terms in the discourse on the quality of academic education and the employability of graduates. In addition to having the required generic and domain-specific knowledge, university graduates are expected to be able to reflect on, apply, adapt and advance their knowledge while on the job. This new focus on the acquisition of competencies during higher education and transfer of knowledge and skills to the workplace has led to an urgent need for evidence of sufficient learning outcomes of students in higher education programs. However, assessment of such has been largely neglected in international empirical research (cf. Tremblay, Lalancette, Roseveare, 2012; Blömeke, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Kuhn & Fege, 2013). This is partly due to the complexity of defining academic competencies of students when faced with diverse international and intranational study models, education structures, and teaching practices in the tertiary education sector. As part of the European Union’s (EU) Bologna Process, the European Higher Education Area was created, representing heterogeneous structures unified mainly with regard to university degrees. Yet, numerous studies have shown that the higher educaation system is not homogenuos at various levels (e.g., the scope and speed of implementation of the new bachelor degree courses and master degree courses and the composition of courses and student bodies; see Brennan, Patel & Tang 2009).

In this context, in 2011 the national research program “Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education (KoKoHs)” was initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to create a systematic framework for various individual projects in several domains of higher education (e.g., economic, educational, and engineering sciences). The program includes 24 interdisciplinary research alliances, comprising nearly 70 single projects with approximately 220 researchers at more than 50 higher education institutions throughout Germany. Experts from various disciplines work together and network nationally as well as internationally on a joint multi- and interdisciplinary research program while integrating various methodologies. This allows systematic, internationally compatible and fundamental research to be conducted on theoretical modeling and empirical assessment and validation of academic competencies of students in higher education (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Kuhn & Toepper, 2014). The focus of the initiative is how to model domain-specific and generic competencies acquired at an academic level while taking the particular context into account. Moreover, these theoretical models are transferred into measuring models and instruments which are then tested and validated.

Assessing competencies of university students and graduates in the highly differentiated education systems in the European Higher Education Area poses a variety of challenges to researching content and methodology (see Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Shavelson & Kuhn, 2015).

Blömeke, S., Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Kuhn, C., & Fege, J. (Eds.) (2013). Modeling and measuring competencies in higher education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Brennan, J., Patel, K. & Tang, W. (2009). Diversity in the student learning experience and time devoted to study: a comparative analysis of the UK and European evidence: report to HEFCE. London: CHERI. Trembley, K., Lalancette, D. & Roseveare, D. (2012). Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes. Feasibility Study Report. Volume 1 – Design and Implementation. OECD. Weinert, F. E. (2001). Concept of competence: A conceptual clarification. In D. S. Rychen & L. H. Salganik (Eds.), Defining and selecting key competencies (pp. 45–65). Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Kuhn, C. & Toepper, M. (2014). Modelling and assessing higher education learning outcomes in Germany. In H. Coates (Ed.). Higher Education Learning Outcomes Assessment – International Perspectives (pp. 213-235). Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O., Shavelson, R. J. & Kuhn, C. (2015). The International State of Research on Measurement of Competency in Higher Education. In Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, O. & Shavelson, R. (2015). Assessment of Competence in Higher Education. Special Issue in the Journal Studies in Higher Education (in press).