Preliminary analysis of an appealing program for outstanding students at the school of design engineering (ETSID) of Valencia

During the 2010/2011 academic year, the Universities of the Valencia region (Spain) started up a pioneer experience in Spanish Higher Education: the High Academic Performance Groups (in Spanish, the so-called ARA groups “Grupos de Alto Rendimiento Académico”) aiming to support and attract the brightest students with the best skills, so that they can achieve a high academic performance. The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), as a result of its commitment to promote its quality and internationalization, has taken part in this project from the dawn of its implementation. Since then, ARA groups have been set up in five of the UPV Bachelor Degrees, two of them being offered at the School of Design Engineering (ETSID). In this work, we analyse the implementation process of the ARA groups at ETSID since 2010/2011, outlining some of the future strategies that should be taken into account for their consolidation.