A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

79

October 2015

The ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2014 [ca] is divided into six sections, which coincide with the Agency's main areas of strategic thrust: quality assurance of institutions and programmes, quality assurance of teaching, knowledge generation and transfer, internationalisation, strategic management and communication, and internal organisation.

A summary of the main activities in 2014 is as follows:

• Quality assurance of institutions and programmes: deployment of the accreditation and final stage of the VSMA Framework, which was implemented uniformly with the procedures already running of validation, modification and monitoring of recognised degree programmes and awards; the articulation and positioning of AQU Catalunya as regards international quality label certification; and the establishment of guidelines that enable progress towards self-accredited/self-accrediting institutions.
• Quality assurance of teaching: pre-selection assessment of contract academic staff; the assessment of merits in teaching, research and management; start of the pilot project on departmental assessment, and the accreditation of the teaching assessment handbooks used in public universities in Catalonia.
• Knowledge generation and transfer: the field work for the fifth survey on the employment outcomes of the graduate population from Catalan universities (pre-Bologna undergraduate programmes, and Master's and doctoral programmes); the first study and survey of employers' perceptions of graduate employment outcomes; the upgrading of WINDDAT, the website with indicators on teaching that measure and monitor the running of recognised degree programmes; completion of the pilot stage of the survey on the satisfaction of Bachelor's degree-level students, and the organisation of four workshops and events.
• Internationalisation: discussions on support for the internationalisation of Catalan universities and the setting up of accreditation of the institutional quality of international learning providers; management and running of the Secretariat of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE); maintaining institutional contacts at international level with the European associations that the Agency is associated with, and participation in international projects and QA review procedures as a way to generate added value for Catalan universities.
• Strategic management and communication: drawing up of the Strategic Plan for 2015-2018; improvements to coordination with university officials and the Government of Catalonia; upkeep of the Agency's instruments for communication (webpage and e-newsletter), and the opening of a Twitter account.
• Internal organisation: the accountability and optimisation of the allocation of human and physical resources in the Agency's different projects and activities; implementation of the NEXUS programme for the quality assurance of teaching assessment, and continuous implementation of ISO 27001 for information security management.