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Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

59

March 2012

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EDITORIAL

Winddat: a useful tool for the analysis of degrees

As it says in the inscription with the famous dictum by Lord Kelvin that was engraved on the facade of the Social Science Research Building at the University of Chicago in 1929: "If you cannot measure, your knowledge is meagre and unsatisfactory."

Before talking about Winddat, however, it should be mentioned that the higher education system in Catalonia has played a pioneering role in Spain in defining and implementing UNEIX, a database that gathers and validates data provided by the universities according to homogeneous criteria to produce reliable information. Indicators are constructed using these data, the definition and calculation of which have been agreed with the university authorities. Winddat would not exist if it had not been for the interest and commitment of the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya), the universities and AQU Catalunya to set up a system to measure university activity.


AQU NEWS

ARTICLES

  • Gender differences in graduate labour market outcomes: ten years on
    The workplace behaviour of the group of females with higher studies is different to that of females with lower levels of education (see table 3). The inactivity rate for females aged between 25 and 54 with lower levels of education is 21% and an employment rate of 63%, whereas the females surveyed had an inactivity rate of 2.5% and an employment rate of 93%. Education narrows the differences in professional achievement between males and females. From this it can be deduced that the differences between males and females in the general population cannot be extrapolated to those between male and female university graduates.
    Anna Prades Nebot - Project manager of AQU
  • Winddat, a tool for monitoring recognised degree programmes and awards
    Winddat is a teaching indicators website for the development and analysis of degree programmes that was designed and developed within the context of the VSMA Framework for the ex-ante accreditation, monitoring, modification and accreditation of recognised degree programmes as a support tool for quality assurance of the development of university programmes of study. Winddat presents evidence in the form of uniform indicators for academic outcomes, the university admissions pre-registration process (preinscripció), resource availability, teaching staff, employers and graduate labour market outcomes, amongst other things, all of which is necessary evidence for system diagnosis and drawing up proposals for enhancement and corrective measures for the programmes of study offered by universities in Catalonia.
    Carina Àlvarez Ramos and David Gassiot Andreu - Project Manager and Head of the IT unit of AQU
 

OPINION

  • The Euro-Mediterranean area: a place of encounter for quality assurance agencies in southern Europe

    Rafael Llavori de Micheo
    ANECA and ENQA Board Member

    The JISER-MED project (Joint Innovation & Synergies in Education and Research) was launched in January 2010. Coordinated by the University of Barcelona, the project forms part of the TEMPUS programme funded by the European Commission and involves higher education institutions (HEIs) and quality assurance (QA) agencies from the three regions that make up the Euro-Mediterranean area: the Maghreb, the Middle East and southern Europe.

    The fundamental object of the project is to promote the mobility and employability of doctoral students within the Euro-Mediterranean area, with particular attention on the dimension of quality assurance across all three regions. In addition, JISER-MED has also served as a privileged place of encounter for university quality assurance agencies from higher education systems in southern Europe (Spain, Catalonia and France) whose institutions form part of the project.

 

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