A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

98

July 2020

AQU's Institutional and Programme Review Committee (CAIP) has endorsed the Guidelines for the adaptation of study programmes in health emergencies and exceptional circumstances: introduction, delivery and accreditation [Spanish version].

As a general rule, institutions should deliver study programmes in accordance with the programme specification (submitted in the ex-ante accreditation procedure). When this is not possible, due to the application of standard operating procedures laid down in the legal regulations, institutions must implement palliative measures that allow students to attain a programme's learning outcomes.

The document is divided into three main sections:

• General issues: such as access and admission; teaching methodologies, learning activities and assessment; public information; resources; and the notification of changes introduced and their accreditation. 
• Compulsory placement/work experience.
• Final year projects (bachelor/first degrees) and master's theses.

Compulsory placement/work experience and final year projects (bachelor/first degrees) and master's theses are the two curriculum components most affected by the current context. A series of alternatives that take into account the different cases presented in the five branches of knowledge have therefore been proposed.

The document incorporates many of the recommendations made by the conferences of directors of doctoral studies and deans and the Inter-University Council of Catalonia and complements two other documents recently approved:

• "Considerations of AQU Catalunya regarding the declaration of the state of emergency and teaching in higher education" in which AQU undertook to be flexible and adapt its quality assurance protocols and procedures to modifications in the delivery of study programmes as a consequence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic. All changes made will be reviewed and assessed during monitoring provided they are not permanent modifications. 
• "Protocol for action within the context of the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus" which sets out the ways in which AQU adapted its quality assurance procedures for institutional and programme review in Catalonia during the public health emergency.