A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

93

April 2019

The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) are a set of standards and guidelines used by institutions and higher education quality assurance (QA) agencies in Europe as a reference document for internal and external quality assurance systems in higher education. Part 3 of the ESG sets out the seven standards and guidelines for external QA agencies. If I personally had to choose what I consider to be the foundations of a QA agency from these seven standards, the main ones would be:

• Independence. Agencies should be independent and act autonomously. They should have full responsibility for their operations and the outcomes of those operations without third party influence. Independence is important to ensure that procedures and decisions are solely based on expertise.
• Professional conduct. High professional standards and integrity in the agency’s work are indispensable. For this reason, all persons involved in its activities must be competent and act professionally and ethically.
• Activities, policy and processes for quality assurance. Agencies should have clear and explicit goals and objectives that are part of their publicly available mission statement.

Each agency must apply these standards within its own context and deal with them in the way it considers most appropriate. AQU Catalunya complies first and foremost with these through its code of ethics and Strategic Plan (Spanish versions)In fact, to be precise, I would go so far as to say that these documents are so important to us that they had already been produced and implemented way before the ESG even appeared.¹

The first ethical code endorsed and implemented by AQU Catalunya was in 2000, the second one in 2008, and ten years later in 2018 the Governing Board adopted the decision to commission a new update. The new code of ethics is a document that defines the fundamental values that guide decision-making in the Agency (dignity, independence, impartiality, integrity, innovation and continuous improvement, public service, diversity, equity and trust) and the instrumental values that refer to the means and processes for achieving its objectives (transparency and accountability, cooperation, efficiency, internationalisation and competence). These values are specified in the thirteen commitments that explain how they are applied by the Agency in its activities.

This code of ethics, like the previous ones, is addressed to and intended for the staff of AQU Catalunya and experts and contributors in relation to their work and activities with the Agency.

In the case of the Agency's strategic plan, the first one covered the period from 2001-2007, the second 2009-2012, the third 2015-2018, and the Governing Board has now just adopted a fourth Strategic Plan covering 2019-2022. Changes in the strategic plan over this period have been enormous from what was a document that merely set out the basic lines of action to the later structuring of AQU Catalunya's activities according to strategic principles and, in the latest plan, fundamental strategic guidelines for its main activities for the coming years. Priorities set out in the Strategic Plan for 2019-2022 include innovation, the use of quantitative and qualitative data, internationalisation, the training of experts, and the establishment of balance between the Agency's activities and its available resources. Details of the Strategic Plan are specified on a yearly basis in AQU Catalunya's annual Action Plan, and there is a follow-up every six months to monitor developments in its implementation.

For those who are interested, I wholeheartedly encourage you to read both documents, which are really very brief. Without the Agency's more than twenty years of experience, it would have been impossible to summarise them as they have been.

I would like to thank the working group of experts that consisted of Esther Giménez-Salinas (PhD), Marina Garcés (PhD), Begoña Román (PhD) and Jordi Escolar for their work in updating the code of ethics and making it current and easy to use. I am also very grateful to all of those who very kindly offered their opinions in the open consultations with the stakeholder groups concerning the drafting of the Strategic Plan. Without your help, we wouldn't have the instruments that serve as the basis for the Agency's activities and conduct.

 ¹ The first version of the ESG appeared in 2005, and a second version in 2015.