Butlletí

A bimonthly publication of AQU Catalunya

66

May 2013

EDITORIAL

Next stop: accreditation

There is so much fruit and vegetables and fish in the market that the expression "now it's the season for grapes" or "now it's the time of year for corn" has become a thing of the past. Nevertheless, if one wants to eat well, healthily and inexpensively you have to buy in season. Even if it's been grown in a greenhouse, whatever is in season is always better. And if it's grown locally, on top of saving energy in transport, one helps the local economy.

And so the time for accreditation is about to start. In recent years a glut of validations (ex-ante assessments) have been carried out, both fresh and frozen, i.e. revalidation, but next year will be the "time for accreditation". In fact the "season" has already arrived because out of the more than four hundred Masters' programmes offered the current academic year by Catalan universities, approximately one hundred and eighty were validated during the 2008-09 academic year and have already completed their fourth year by now (2012-13 academic year). Regardless of whether or not the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD) publishes the decree that extends the deadlines for accreditation by the time this editorial comes out, come next year the list will have been reduced considerably. It is estimated that around 140 out of the 160 Masters' degrees submitted for validation are revalidations, which reduces the number of Masters' that come up for accreditation next year to only 40. To this figure one should add around 50 more that were validated during the 2009-10 academic year.

AQU NEWS

• The Catalan universities presented with the methodology for the accreditation of recognised degrees30.04.2013
• Start of the monitoring of recognised programmes, 201322.04.2013
• Extension of the deadline for applications for the accreditation of research and advanced research to 10 May19.04.2013
• The universities discuss the impact of teaching assessment handbooks17.04.2013
• INQAAHE: 2013 Biennial Conference16.04.2013
• Results of the second call made in 2012 for the accreditation of research and advanced research15.04.2013
• AQU Catalunya in the Annual Conference of the Forum on Education Abroad12.04.2013
• Seminar on Quality Assurance in Minsk 02.04.2013
• Results of the second call of 2012 for the issue of the reports of tenure-track lecturer and collaborating lecturer28.03.2013
• Launching of the ISLAH project27.03.2013
• ESG revision26.03.2013
• Public consultation on accreditation methodology25.03.2013
• International call for applications by the Serra Húnter Programme for the recruitment of faculty staff at universities in Catalonia20.03.2013
• The economic management of AQU Catalunya recognised by the EAPC14.03.2013
• The CSIC's ranking of publishers of scientific publications in the Humanities and Social Sciences13.03.2013
• Meeting of the AQU's Student Commission07.03.2013
• AHELO's results06.03.2013
• Summary of teaching assessment in Catalan universities01.03.2013

ARTICLES

• Master's survey launch
  The fifth series of studies on graduate destinations (labour market outcomes of graduates) in Catalonia is to be carried out in the first quarter of 2014. For the first time, Master's degrees will be included in the main survey.
  Graduate destination studies stem from the interest of universities in the employment outcomes of graduates. Surveys provide information to society on the level and quality of graduate employment outcomes, although they were conceived fundamentally as an instrument for collecting useful information on the education-job match (or the match between the provision of university education and the needs of the labour market).
  Anna Prades Nebot (Project manager) - Lorena Bernàldez Arjona (Management assistant adviser)
• The AQU Catalunya proposal for the revision of the ESG
  At the Bucharest Ministerial Conference in April 2012, European ministers of higher education decided to revise the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG). Ministers invited BUSINESSEUROPE, Education International, ENQA, ESU, EUA, EURASHE and EQAR to prepare an initial proposal. Ministers envisage adopting the revised ESG at their next ministerial conference in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2015. The Steering Group has launched an open call for contributions to the revision process. The call addresses the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) as well as all others interested in contributing to the revision of the ESG.
  Editorial board - AQU Catalunya

OPINION

• Update on the revision of the ESG
  

  Tia Loukkola
  Head of Unit Quality Management & Institutional Evaluation Programme (EUA)

  Since 2005 the development of both institutional and national/regional QA systems has been underpinned by the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). The ESG were prepared by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in cooperation with the European Students’ Union (ESU), the European University Association (EUA) and the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education (EURASHE), and adopted in the Ministerial Meeting in 2005.
  
  Although this might over-simplify the situation, it can be argued that the European Commission’s Progress Report on QA published in 2009 acted as one of the catalysts for the discussions on whether the ESG fulfilled their purpose and were still useful in 2009. The report suggested, for example, adding more explicit links to the other "Bologna Tools" in the document.

AQU RECOMMENDS

• Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives. A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies
• Employability of Graduates and Higher Education Management Systems. Final report of DEHEMS project