The aim of this paper is to address the complexity of education for development and the need to define cross-curricular competencies in university study programmes. The paper will deal with the following aspects:

1.- The latest legislative reforms introduced within the field of Higher Education in Spain and, as an immediate consequence, the switch over to the Degree, Master and Doctorate structure in Higher Education. These changes in the regulations make it advisable, and sometimes necessary, to reconsider proposals in the programmes of study of the different official degrees or the university's own advanced diplomas.

2.- The educational activities carried out at the Universitat Jaume I within the framework of higher education for development and their possible review.

3.- An update on the preparation of the programmes of study that will take us into the European Higher Education Area and the necessary definition of goals and competencies: problems.

4.- The Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency’s (AECID) recent Development Education strategy as a framework instrument for defining competencies.