Creativity in Spanish universities. A critical analysis of curricula, lecturing activity, and professional sector needs in audiovisual communication, advertising, and public relations bachelor degrees

Abstract

Since the entry into force of the European Higher Education Area, creativity has been considered a transversal competence in most university degrees, especially in Communication. The aim of this article is identifying the approach to creativity in all the subjects taught in the Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and Public Relations degrees in Spanish public universities. Thus, have been carried out a contents analysis focused on teaching guides of the curricula, a questionnaire to teachers of these degrees and an experts panel from the professional sector, who have reflected on the training and creative skills of the new graduates. The outcomes indicate that, despite being considered a transversal and necessary quality for new professionals, creativity is not treated as such in the teaching guides. Although some of them contain terms related to this ability, in the rest of the programmes it is hardly present. This corroborates the gap between the needs of the professional sector and undergraduate university training, as young graduates show significant deficiencies in terms of creative capacity.