A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

92

January 2019

Given that AQU Catalunya's activities are organised according to the calendar year instead of the academic year, at the beginning of each year the Agency looks back and takes stock of the previous year and outlines the challenges envisaged for the coming year.

Looking back at 2018, the Agency reviewed 565 programmes under the VSMA Framework for the ex-ante accreditation, monitoring, modification and ex-post accreditation of recognised degree programmes at Catalan universities. This was 10% more than the number of programmes reviewed in 2017, and twice the number of programmes reviewed in 2011.

In addition, 3,042 applications for teaching staff assessment were processed and completed during 2018. This was 16% more than in 2017 and twice the number in 2011.

In short, the Agency doubled the number of its programme and teaching staff reviews and evaluations in seven years. This was unfortunately not accompanied by a comparable proportional increase in resources, meaning that the staff and experts working with AQU Catalunya were directly impacted by the increase in the corresponding level of responsibility and burden, without any additional compensation.

Together with its quality assurance activities, the Agency's knowledge generation activities also increased. 2018 saw the consolidation of the surveys coordinated by AQU Catalunya, with the presentation of the results and findings of the survey of the employment outcomes of Master's graduates and the first report on the results and findings of the satisfaction survey of recent graduates.

One new development was that the results and findings of all of the employment outcomes surveys can now be viewed on the EUC data web portal, including graduates of first degrees, master's degrees and doctoral degrees, as well as the results and findings of the satisfaction survey of recent graduates. The fact that these survey data have been made available to both the university community and society as a whole has been really well received, and we trust that this will continue, together with the impact of enhancement measures and specific policies that stem from this.

In addition to its review and quality assurance work and surveys, the Agency also worked on and developed many other projects, some of them abroad – such as its acknowledged participation in the TESLA An Adaptive Trust-based e-assessment System for Learning project (2016-2018) and its continuing work hosting the Secretariat of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) since October 2013 – as well as other projects in Spain.

As far as the challenges for 2019 are concerned, the Agency's review activities are expected to continue to increase and are set out in the Action Plan for 2019 [ca], together with other objectives that are also considered to be essential. While being simple in conceptual terms, these will be more complicated in terms of their implementation. The main challenges envisaged in 2019 are as follows:

• On the one hand, certification for internal quality assurance systems and institutional accreditation is to be consolidated in order to reduce the pressure on programme review;
• We also intend to complete transformation of the notification and appeals stages in the assessment of teaching staff so that this becomes an entirely e-administration procedure;
• The presentation of the results and findings of the second Employers survey 2017-2019 at sectoral events is also planned, three of which have already taken place.
• Approval will also be given this year to AQU Catalunya's Strategic Plan for 2019-2022, which ideally can be aligned with the Agency's contract programme with the Government of Catalunya (Generalitat de Catalunya).

We start the new year with renewed energy, exciting challenges and trusting that, in the short term, the pressure on staff and those working with AQU as outside experts can be reduced and that the Agency's activities can be brought into line with the available resources.