A phenomenographic analysis of the implementation of competence-based education in higher education

•Investigation of experiences of competence-based education in higher education.•Using in-depth qualitative method: phenomenographic analysis.•Majority of institutions use mix of traditional and competence-based teaching methods.•Incentive for more empirical research of competence-based education.

After one decade of Competence-Based Education (CBE), the need arises to investigate the experiences and implementation of CBE in contemporary higher education. A phenomenographic analysis using interviews was conducted with three different groups of stakeholders, namely curriculum coordinator, teachers and students at 26 different educational institutions, providing three different types of educational programmes (ICT and Media, Management, Teacher Education). Results suggest that CBE is emerging and that the majority of the institutions designed their education through a mix of traditional and competence-based teaching and assessment methods. Nevertheless, some obstacles appeared as restrictions to succeeding in the further implementation of CBE.