Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

43

July 2009

EDITORIAL

Research assessment in the Humanities and Social Sciences under debate

Since I have held the post of the CEO (President) of AQU Catalunya, a significant number of the comments and suggestions I have received have been associated with several of the criteria used to assess research by university academic staff in the fields of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Such criticisms brought to my attention have generally questioned certain assessment criteria applied by different regional and national quality assurance agencies. The problem is therefore one not just of the agency that I am the head of, and it is one that more than likely goes beyond assessment in itself.

AQU NEWS

• Symposium From Design to Implementation of Internal Quality Assurance Systems29.06.2009
• New edition of the quality-assessment training course for students 25.06.2009
• Approval of the modifications of the Activities Plan 2009 22.06.2009
• Application period for grants to implement an experimental follow-up of bachelor and master's degrees18.06.2009
• The third assessment phase of affiliated centres begins15.06.2009
• Results of the first survey on the satisfaction with the 2008 academic staff assessment12.06.2009
• Impetus for the participation of students in quality assurance projects09.06.2009
• Results of the first call of AUDIT programme08.06.2009
• AQU Catalunya makes public the accreditation reports of teaching assessment handbooks of catalan universities03.06.2009
• AQU Catalunya publishes the Annual Activities Report 2008 02.06.2009
• Renewal of AQU Catalunya's ISO 9001:2008 certification22.05.2009
• ENQA General Assembly, September 2009, Barcelona13.05.2009
• Conference of European Ministers Responsible for Higher Education08.05.2009
• AQU participates in the conference Quality and development in Nordic Higher Education (16-17 April 2009, University of Iceland)07.05.2009
• Results of the first call of 2009 for the issue of the reports of tenure-track lecturer and collaborating lecturer 05.05.2009

ARTICLES

• The recognition of teaching excellence at the University of Lleida
  One of the elements underlying the present-day university culture in Spain and Catalonia is the belief that the activity, repercussions and quality of research work is measured in a highly objective way and very precisely by the bibliometric indices that E. Garfield, director of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), published during the eighties in the Current Contents publication.
  Joan Prat Corominas - Vice-rector for Quality and Planning, University of Lleida (UdL)
• Learning from the Experience of Implementing Quality Assurance Systems: a UK University Perspective
  The aim of this article is to reflect on Sheffield Hallam University's experience of implementing quality assurance systems at programme level, and to offer some features of good practice and areas of challenge. This is intended to be of practical value to colleagues in the Catalan universities in their quality assurance journey.
  Mark Wainman - Head of Academic Standards & Quality Enhancement, Sheffield Hallam University, England
• Ten years of the Butlletí
  First of all, I offer my sincere congratulations to AQU, and especially to the editors of the Butlletí, for their perseverence and enthusiasm over ten years, and above all I'd like to congratulate them on the quality of the publication. Ten years is a considerable period of time in the world of university quality assurance, especially when only a few pioneering countries in Europe have been involved in this field for all this time. A look at the Butlletí's development offers us an overview of the various stages in quality assurance in Catalan universities.
  Gemma Rauret Dalmau - Director of National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA)

OPINION

• Competences
  

  Miguel Valero García
  Lecturer at the Department of Computer Architecture, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)

  If one had to choose the term most frequently used in the bibliography associated with the European Higher Education Area, the term competence would be high up there among the favourites (in a battle for first place along with terms such as Bachelor, Master's, student-based learning, ECTS, etc.). It is therefore not surprising that one of the most important challenges of the new scenario is the development of competence-based study plans.

AQU RECOMMENDS

• AHELO newsletter
• Survey of Master degrees in Europe