Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

53

March 2011

EDITORIAL

Towards benchmarking

During the last few months of 2010, the Agency presented the Framework for the ex-ante assessment, monitoring, modification and accreditation of recognised degrees (known by its Catalan acronym as the VSMA Framework) to all of the universities, both public and private, in Catalonia, the aim being to explain the characteristics of the framework and receive feedback from those involved in its implementation. All together, around nine hundred (900) people took part, the majority of which were vice-principals, deans, heads of department, academic coordinators of recognised degree programmes, and university quality assurance and academic management staff.

AQU NEWS

• ENQA training session for experts for agency reviews22.02.2011
• Setting up of the CAQ's special review panels18.02.2011
• JISER-MED – Joint Innovation & Synergies in Education and Research – Mediterranean Region16.02.2011
• Applications for the 2011 call for the AUDIT programme now being accepted10.02.2011
• AQU Catalunya approves the Guidebook to the drawing up and ex-ante assessment of proposals for Bachelor's and Master's degrees08.02.2011
• Training in ex-ante assessment, modification and monitoring for the members of the CAQ special review panels01.02.2011
• Publication of the quality handbook, Working after university. The quality of employment of the graduate and PhD-holder population in Catalonia26.01.2011
• The CAQ is reorganised for the purpose of its duties of ex-ante assessment, monitoring, modification and accreditation25.01.2011
• Start of the fourth study on the labour market outcomes of university graduates in Catalonia24.01.2011
• Meeting of the ENQA Board in Barcelona21.01.2011
• AQU Catalunya sets the 2011 application calls for the assessment of tenure-track lecturer and collaborating lecturer13.01.2011
• AQU Catalunya sets the criteria for the assessment of merits in research of civil servant and non-civil servant academic and research staff04.01.2011

ARTICLES

• The Quality Assessment Commission within the new framework for the quality assurance of university degree programmes
  On the 2 July 2010, the VSMA Framework for the ex-ante assessment, monitoring, modification and accreditation of recognised degree programmes was approved by the AQU Catalunya Board of Management. The Framework links together the four review processes that, from the legal standpoint, are compulsory for recognised degree courses and does so in a logical and conceptually coherent way in order to establish higher levels of efficiency in the management of the different internal and external review and evaluation processes that will need to be implemented.
  Josep Manel Torres Solà - Coordinator of Quality Assessment department
• Exploring the future of quality assurance and enhancement strategies in higher education
  ENQA periodically carries out analytical surveys aimed at providing an up-to-date overview of the mechanisms of external quality assurance used in higher education in Europe. The first analysis carried out in 2002 served to identify the actors (agencies) and the methodologies used at the European level. The second analysis in 2007 updated the figures from the previous study and gauged the position of the agencies in relation to the European standards for quality assurance (ESG). ENQA is carrying out a third analysis in 2011, the objective of which is to promote talks on the impact of quality assurance methods and their potential development in the future.
  Josep Grifoll Saurí - Head of Quality Assessment department

OPINION

• External review and cultural differences
  

  Matti Kajaste
  Senior advisor, Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC)

  There is such an abundance of international co-operation, benchmarking and experience-sharing going on between European quality assurance agencies that it is sometimes easy to forget the differences that persist. A quality assurance agency and the type of evaluation method it utilises are, in my opinion, very much a product of the respective country's system of higher education. The Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC), for example, has chosen a very enhancement-led quality audit model because of the need to respect university autonomy, a deeply rooted characteristic of the culture of higher education in Finland. Not every type of evaluation method is compatible with every culture of higher education however.

AQU RECOMMENDS

• Guidebook to the drawing up and ex-ante assessment of proposals for recognised Bachelor and Master's degree programmes (2011) [ca]
• Guidebook to the monitoring of recognised Bachelor and Master's degree programmes (2011) [ca]