The purpose of this case study was to explore the association between implementing the competency-based approach (CBA) in graduate programs and the student's perception about the aforementioned approach. The research was conducted with 504 graduate students from Universidad Tecnologica de Panama and Universidad Tecnologica Oteima in the Republic of Panama to explore their perception about the CBA. The research is descriptive and the results show that 84% of participants will benefit in their future professional development through the CBA. Authors conclude that the CBA has had an international coverage and can be replicated in local scenarios as Latin American Alfa Tuning Project (2004-2007) has been implemented in universities from Panama.