International Academic Mobility: A Study About the Assessment of Two Social Competencies: Leadership and Resilience

Abstract

The objective of this qualitative study was to observe what importance is assigned by university doctors, that is, those who achieved the highest level of education, to two of these social competencies: Resilience and Leadership. The population was comprised of PhDs from Argentina and other countries who participated in internationalization programs in France. The hypothesis is that the highest level of education achieved, added to the immersion in another culture after having undergone a national process of selection before the mobility academic programme, could result in a greater valuation of the so-called social and management competencies. The assessment of Resilience and Leadership was observed through different techniques, specially the hierarchical evocations technique. The findings show a) Resilience is almost not mentioned despite the fact that the Emotional-Relational dimension enters the core of the representations of PhDs about the fundamental competencies to be developed by universities and companies in the field of hard and soft sciences; b) the same happens with Leadership. These results reveal the gap or distance between the University with respect to the needs of the scientific and productive system.