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Butlletí

A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

98

July 2020

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EDITORIAL

Enjoy your summer holidays!

The unexpected appearance of the pandemic led to a complex end-of-the-academic-year due to the adjustments and adaptation required of everyone in terms of the new situation, both work-wise and personally.

The efforts made across the entire system of higher education in Catalonia to adjust to the new demands and requirements while maintaining required levels of quality have been enormous. In the case of AQU Catalunya, the challenges that we have faced and quite successfully addressed have been the replanning of all the Agency's activities and the transformation of all quality assurance procedures from in-person to distance and online procedures, in addition to the Agency's physical change of location.


AQU NEWS

ARTICLES

  • A high level of satisfaction with the quality of delivery, but with room for improvement as regards student support
    The recent graduate satisfaction survey, which AQU has been conducting since 2015, is a valuable source of information for the different stakeholders involved in the system of universities and higher education in Catalonia. The survey gathers the opinions of recent graduates about their experience and they are asked to provide feedback and make honest comments about their degree course and university, the aim being for universities to have a better understanding of their graduates' experience so they can enhance the quality of provision in the system.
    Lídia Daza - Senior advisor of Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Department
  • AQU Catalunya's experience with online external review procedures
    AQU Catalunya has worked quickly to adapt its procedures to the exceptional circumstances stemming from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus outbreak.

    In terms of institutional and programme review, a series of actions have been undertaken to set in place effective protocols to maintain most of the activities covered by the VSMA framework.

    Esther Huertas - Head of Quality Assurance Department
 

OPINION

  • Virtual On-Site Visits as Part of Assessment Procedures

    Peter Mall
    Scientific advisor evalag (Evaluationsagentur Baden-Württemberg)

    The on-site visit consisting of a meeting of experts and members of higher education institutions (HEIs) – as part of a peer review process – is still regarded as the core element in assessment procedures on study programmes, quality management systems or research projects. The corona pandemic has posed a particular challenge to these procedures: can virtual “on-site visits” (video conferences) replace or absorb the added value of face-to-face encounters? We have explored the possibilities and limitations in recent months and wish to summarise some of them.

 

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