EUROPEAN HEALTH CARE FINAL DISSERTATION: a digital, international, and collaborative co-designed model to address health care societal challenges

<< Background >>Higher education institutions (HEIs) must promote equal opportunities for graduates by fostering core educational elements that enhance employability. Digital and soft skills, including communication, ethics, and internationalization, are essential for students to navigate global challenges. Internationalization at home offers an inclusive alternative for students who cannot study abroad, promoting intercultural collaboration and multilingualism. HEIs have invested in internationalizing curricula, leading to collaborative projects across Europe, such as ENLIGHT and ECOLHE. However, Final Undergraduate Dissertations (FUGD) remain a challenge. The EHECADI project aims to create a digital, international model to strengthen healthcare curricula, fostering research and societal impact. << Objectives >>The EHECADI project supports healthcare students in nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and nutrition to address major societal health challenges through Final Undergraduate Dissertations (FUGD). It aims to create a digital, international, and collaborative EHECADI Knowledge Hub, reinforcing healthcare curricula across European HEIs. The project has three key objectives: EHECADI Community – Establishing a knowledge-sharing network between academia and stakeholders to align FUGD with real-world societal needs. EHECADI Course – Developing a modular digital open course to enhance responsible research, digital, and transversal skills throughout students’ degrees. Designed for universal accessibility, the course promotes global-mindedness, employability, and early soft skills acquisition. Guidelines for FUGD – Creating structured resources for students, supervisors, and institutions, including best practices, collaboration tips, and insights into responsible research and innovation. By following SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely), EHECADI ensures a structured, impactful approach to empowering students and fostering interdisciplinary, evidence-based healthcare practices. << Implementation >>The project activities leading to the previously described objectives were organized into Work packages (WP). WP1 and WP5 included all the management and dissemination activities, respectively, which guaranteed the timely development of the project as well as its dissemination and sustainability. More information regarding the detailed activities its timing and monitoring are described in depth in implementation section. The rest of the work packages, WP2, WP3, and WP4 include the activities leading to the achievement of project results. WP2 includes all the activities leading to the EHECADI Knowledge Hub (KH) and the EHECADI Community (EC) co-created and developed by the participating HEIs working closely together with stakeholders and students. The KH and EC co-created were hosted on a platform which was developed and maintained during WP2. Moreover, this WP included the detection of research priorities, responding to societal needs, which had been launched on the finalized platform. Users' experience assessment is the last activity included in this WP2 as it has helped improve the project result. Under WP3 there were all the activities related to the EHECADI course. The course was co-created and developed among students, supervisors, and stakeholders. Piloting, evaluation, and posterior improvements to the final course were also included in this WP3. Evaluation (final approach to evaluation in cocreation terms) took place in Finland (M16) as a learning and teaching activity with students from all HEIs as well as supervisors. The transnational partner meeting in Portugal (M13) agreed on the protocols for this final approach to evaluation. Finally, all the activities related to the EHECADI guidelines were included in WP4. The guidelines cocreation and development process included students, supervisors, and stakeholders interaction. This development, implementation, and evaluation was not a linear process, but a cycle of interdependent activities that was closely monitored to achieve the final guidelines. Technical issues and pedagogical approaches were promoted among WP Leaders and participating organizations. As in WP3, the final approach to evaluation was a learning and training activity for supervisors which took place in Portugal (M25). All the activities were monitored and deliverables, as well as milestones, were defined to ensure their on-time completion. << Results >>The EHECADI project addressed societal health needs through Final Undergraduate Dissertations (FUGD). To reach the aim, a virtual space was created to find and connect partners internationally, promoting their collaboration and identification of dissertation topics tackling societal needs. The main output of the project was the creation of the EHECADI Community (EC) where members can exchange knowledge and work together towards solving societal challenges through FUGD. The EC was co-created among final users (students, supervisors, and stakeholders). The values of the EC for its members include providing a fun and interactive online environment in which stakeholders can work together to identify and address common challenges, access expertise, build their confidence and contribute to meaningful work that can have real world value. In the long-term the platform can promote personal development, increase users’ professional reputation and identity and provide additional international networking . By being valuable to its members, this community will help to drive the sustainability of the project. This EC will be hosted in the EHECADI Knowledge Hub (KH), a virtual platform populated with the other outputs of the project, namely: The EHECADI course. The EHECADI course is an online open course addressed to anyone who wants to enroll in the program. The course is co-created among final users (like those in the EC co-creation process). Its contents are divided into 3 modules of 1 ECTS each and oriented towards soft skills acquisition. Topics included are: Lifelong ethics, Green lifestyle, Decent work, Co-creative solutions, Democratic life, and Migration are among the course focus. Module 1 Advanced working life skills consists of three subtopics: Empowerment skills & Enterpreneurship, Well-being at work, Job engagement and Job crafting. Module 2 Ethical Reasoning, responsible Research and Science Communication has 3 subtopics: Ethical reasoning, Responsible research and Science communication. Module 3 Future insights consists of 4 subtopics: Green Deal, Superdiversity, Majorities and Minorities, Digitalization. Module certificates may be obtained after the module is successfully completed (1 ECTS/module). Since soft skills acquisition is so important, and, taking into account the alignment of course contents to Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDG), course materials can be used for any bachelor’s degree subject. Micro-credentials/badges have been designed to recognise students acquisition of the EHECADI subtopics linked to curricular subjects. In this way, all the bachelor students can be trained towards soft skills, not only those enrolling for FUGD. These EHECADI course materials/contents use will increase EHECADI impact and reach students beyond those enrolled for FUGD. The EHECADI guidelines. How the EHECADI outputs can be used will be explained in the EHECADI guidelines. The EHECADI guidelines are the third project output and they include three sets of guidelines: for students, for supervisors, and for institutions. These guidelines have been co-created together with final users like the EHECADI course. The guidelines for students provide a digital learning pathway with comprehensive information to guide students towards the successful realization of their FUGD. The guidelines include all the formative as well as the methodological requirements and the responsible research principles. The guidelines for supervisors contain all the pedagogical approaches related to FUGD and the instructions/description on how to upload a dissertation proposal at the EHECADI Knowledge Hub. The guidelines will also help supervisors with their mentoring skills, allowing supervisors to accompany any student towards their best performance. The guidelines for institutions will provide the partner HEIs with innovative solutions to include curricular changes throughout the bachelor’s degree to guarantee the necessary skills to give response to the societal challenges through the students’ FUGD. They also describe the procedures to become an EHECADI member to facilitate EHECADI KH navigation.