Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

37

July 2008

EDITORIAL

A strategic plan for AQU Catalunya

AQU Catalunya has started the process of drafting the Strategic Plan 2009-2012, the purpose of which is to upgrade its operations in relation to the aims laid down in prevailing legislation (Catalan Universities Act, "the continuous improvement of quality in university education") and deal with the increasing demand for assessment stemming from the establishment of the EHEA. The intention behind this Strategic Plan is to deal in particular with the following aims: a) to establish the Agency's activity on a more regular and cyclical basis, planned according to periods of time that extend over more than a year and organised so that regulatory changes can be integrated without any significant alterations to these cycles; b) to develop and implement monitoring processes, which are currently inadequate; c) to reinforce transversal activities that take in the entire higher education system, with regard to both performance evaluation and studies that are carried out; d) to intensify institutional evaluation processes so that the mechanisms for the internal and external quality assurance of programmes and services offered by the universities are dealt with in a more coherent way, and e) to progress towards more integrated models of teaching staff assessment.

AQU NEWS

• AQU Catalunya launches a new website30.06.2008
• Agreement between AQU Catalunya and the University of Extremadura on the assessment of research activities carried out by permanent teaching staff at this institution26.06.2008
• University Conferences in Huesca on Quality and Libraries23.06.2008
• Presentation of the results of the third study on employment placement20.06.2008
• Amendment to the procedure for assessing the research activity of university teaching staff18.06.2008
• AQU Catalunya presents the Open University of Catalonia's assessment experiences at the European Seminar on the Quality of E-learning13.06.2008
• Meeting with the vice rectors for students in Catalan universities04.06.2008
• Process for certifying degrees within the pilot plan for adaptation to the EHEA gets underway26.05.2008

ARTICLES

• Processes and results in relation to the quality assurance mission and goals
  During the ENQA Seminar on Internal Quality Assurance Systems in Barcelona, four workshops were organised on Standard 2.6.8 of the European Standard and Guidelines of ENQA: Accountability procedures for external quality assurance agencies.
  Mirjam Woutersen and Henri Ponds - NVAO policy advisors
• Best practices for the efficiency of the internal quality management systems
  In April this year, the "Internal Quality Assurance Systems and the European Standards and Guidelines" seminar was organised in Barcelona by the ENQA in conjunction with AQU Catalunya.
  Núria Comet Señal - Responsible for internal quality

OPINION

• Agency quality under discussion
  

  Gemma Rauret Dalmau
  Director of ANECA (Agencia Nacional de Evaluación de la Calidad y Acreditación)

  Five years after AQU Catalunya organised a seminar in Sitges laying the foundations for establishing European guidelines and standards for quality agencies, AQU Catalunya brought us together again in Barcelona to expand on the issue of internal quality of agencies and European guidelines.

AQU RECOMMENDS

• Quality Assurance and Qualifications Frameworks (ENQA publication)
• QAA seminar on student membership of audit and review teams