51

November 2010

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ARTICLES

International activity by AQU Catalunya

Josep Grifoll Saurí - Head of Quality Assessment department

This is the first in a series of articles, the aim of which is to present the Agency's international activity and to describe the projects it is working on.

The World Trade Organisation's (WTO) current General Agreement on Trade in Services excludes all activities and services provided by governments in carrying out their natural functions. This has provided the basis for maintaining the capacity of states to regulate and intervene in certain sectors. The case of education is one clear example.

The current scenario however is no longer an exact reflection of the conditions conceived by the WTO in the General Agreement on Trade in Services. In effect, the establishment of the EHEA represents a highly important step in the synchronisation of state policies to eliminate internal borders within the European Union. This political strategy is not exclusive to Europe, with similar initiatives being observed in other continents, and there is every indication of a willingness to overcome the negative effects of national-scale regulations, with the new socio-economic environment calling clearly for implementation on an international, if not a global, basis.

The academic and professional mobility that is bringing about this international regulatory harmonisation represents a major challenge for universities. They quite logically see greater possibilities for growth, but on the primordial condition that they become increasingly competitive. In short, this means that they must offer services of a higher quality.

It is difficult to make predictions about the form that international competitiveness in the providing of higher education services will take, although everything points to the progressive sophistication of knowledge-based infrastructures built around societies and economies, meaning universities, as well as externally organised support services, including quality assurance agencies.

What is the role of the public QA agencies in this new environment? On the one hand, to become internationally recognised organisations so they can appropriately deal with the function of externally validating the processes of accountability and the constant enhancement of provision being offered by the universities: in other words, to generate trust in the value of services, i.e. those of higher education, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

The second role is that of periodically proposing new objectives for quality in line with the current and future needs of the different stakeholders, and also of an international nature. This second strategy deals with generating the necessary elements for the future sustainability of the national higher education system.

Adequate action in this second role implies, amongst other ingredients, collaboration in international quality assurance and enhancement projects in the higher education sector. This enables good practices in quality assurance and enhancement to be identified and, at the same time, a comparison to be made between the criteria of quality in Catalan universities and those in other countries.

AQU is currently present either directly or indirectly through ENQA in various international consortia developing quality assurance in higher education. Work is going on in different fields, for example in continuing education (possibly one of the areas with the greatest opportunities for growth), and it is also involved in exploring how learning outcomes are dealt with in external quality assurance processes, as well as mutual recognition among QA agencies in the accreditation of joint international degree programmes. New possibilities are also being explored to collaborate with agencies outside of Europe.

ENQA EQAR ISO

Generalitat de Catalunya

Via Laietana, 28, 5a planta 08003 Barcelona. Spain. Tel.: +34 93 268 89 50

© 2010 AQU Catalunya - Legal number B-21.910-2008