Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

38

September 2008

EDITORIAL

Confidence in the activities of AQU Catalunya

Firstly, I would like to mention a recent piece of news that, in my view, is of great significance for AQU Catalunya, and that is its imminent listing on the European Quality Assurance Register. This is an objective we have strived continuously to achieve since AQU Catalunya was first established more than eleven years ago. We have been committed to maintaining a good international reputation and to adopting all the good practices that are considered vital for efficient action. The effects of this European recognition are relevant, as the news item in the bulletin explains in detail, but particularly because they come at a time when AQU Catalunya’s involvement in the assessment of new qualifications needed for adaptation to the European Higher Education Area is being discussed.

AQU NEWS

• VIRTUAL programme: final evaluation reports07.08.2008
• Establishment of the accreditation procedure for teaching assessment handbooks for use by public universities01.08.2008
• Second review report on the library services in Catalan universities31.07.2008
• AQU Catalunya certifies the first undergraduate and Master's degrees within the framework of the Pilot Plan30.07.2008
• AQU Catalunya announces a new call for external reviewers of Catalan universities14.07.2008
• Results of the first 2008 evaluation of the research work of non-tenure teaching and research staff10.07.2008
• Start of the second evaluation stage of the 2007 edition of the AUDIT programme07.07.2008

ARTICLES

• The European Quality Assurance Register: enhancing transparency and trust in quality assurance
  EQAR has been established to further the development of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by increasing transparency of quality assurance
  Colin Tück - Project manager of EQAR
• 85% of all employed graduates have university-level functions
  Since 2001, AQU Catalunya has been coordinating labour insertion studies every three years for the social councils of the Catalan public universities in order to obtain data and references on the quality of the labour insertion of the Catalan university system’s graduates.
  Editorial staff - AQU Catalunya

OPINION

• Report on the third study on the entrance of graduates from Catalan universities to the labour market. Comments by the Social Council of Barcelona University
  

  Joaquim Coello Brufau
  President of the Social Council of Barcelona University

  There is an open discussion on whether the university's client (that is to say, the beneficiary of the university’s work in education) is the student or society. If we accept that the university carries out an essential service for society, one of the most essential – what can be more important for the development of a country than the training of its citizens? – then, we would have to conclude that the university’s client is society and students are the product

AQU RECOMMENDS

• Quality Procedures in the European Higher Education. Area and Beyond – Second ENQA Survey
• Frameworks for higher education qualifications