A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

57

November 2011

The AQU's Director, Josep Anton Ferré Vidal, participated in the Latin American dissemination seminar on the ALFA project, Quality Assurance: public policy and university management, held in Buenos Aires on 15-16 September.

The overall objective of the ALFA project, which is coordinated by the Centro Interuniversitario de Desarrollo (CINDA) and funded by the European Union, is to assess the impact of quality assurance procedures from the point of view of public policy and to develop skills and enhance quality management in higher education (universities and QA agencies). Specific objectives were as follows:

• To determine the effectiveness and relevance of the different mechanisms used for quality assurance and enhancement in higher education in Latin America.
• To contribute to the design of public policies to enhance quality management in higher education.
• To help the various actors (policy makers, QA agency staff, reviewers, university QA staff, etc.) involved in quality assurance to acquire the necessary skills.

Twenty-three universities in twelve Latin American and four European countries are taking part in the ALFA project. Two of these, the Technical University of Catalonia/UPC and the Catalan Open University/UOC, are in Catalonia.