Remember 1996? In Catalonia there were 9 universities (now 12), 7 public and 2 private. We did not have bachelor's degrees, but we did have diplomas, undergraduate, technical engineering and higher engineering degrees and all complied with the content structure established in the Catálogo de títulos universitarios, which did not contemplate the “life cycle of degrees” (their verification, monitoring, modification and accreditation). The Bologna Plan? Nothing further from our minds!! And, what about data to analyse the system? We had so little that pretty much all we knew about the 1995-1996 academic year[1] was that there were more than 171 thousand students enrolled (now 276 thousand), there were more than 12 thousand teachers (now more than 23 thousand) and there were 341 courses on offer (now 1,448). Degree programmes "did not need" internal quality assurance systems. University teaching staff were civil servant only, their teaching and management were not assessed, and they did not need any prior accreditation to undergo the selection processes.
And in the mid nineties, the Agency was born as an independent body, with the challenge of promoting the quality and continuous improvement of the Catalan university system to ensure the good use of public resources. Wouldn't it be fun if we had a prediction made in 1996 by university officials about the vision of the Agency or the Catalan university system 25 years on!!! Hardly any of us would have guessed right!!
There are many factors that influence the evolution of an organisation, such as the political-economic-social context, the local and international environment, regulatory changes, the added value it brings to society and the quality of human capital. The uncertainty of what will happen is the order of the day and managing the present with a certain coherence and consistency to build the future is neither easy nor obvious. I would like to highlight two decisive factors in the growth of the Agency: its legal reforms and the management teams that have led it.
During its 25 years of existence, AQU Catalunya has been modified by two legal reforms, that of 2003, with the passing of the Law of Universities of Catalonia, which strengthened it as an element of the system, while lending it greater legal security, extending the Governing Board to the private universities and increasing it functions with teaching staff assessment. And the 2015 reform, Law 15/2015, of 21 July, which has given it more technical independence, while consolidating it as an essential instrument of the Catalan university system.
And in this quarter of a century the Agency has had three management teams. The first two periods, 1996-2008 and 2008-2013, were piloted respectively by the presidency of Antoni Serra Ramoneda who had three directors, David Serrat Congost, Gemma Rauret Dalmau and Javier Bará Temes and by the presidency by Joaquim Prats Cuevas, with Josep Anton Ferré Vidal as director. Since 2013, during my presidency, the director's post has been filled by Martí Casadesús Fa. The three teams have enjoyed the collaboration of Joan Bravo Pijoan and Sebastián Rodríguez Espinar, mainstays of the preparation of a system of indicators and the assessment methodology, respectively.
All the people who have led the Agency have shared our commitment to quality and continuous improvement and the desire to make AQU Catalunya a useful tool in the service of the Catalan university system.
This year marks our 25th anniversary and perhaps due to the pandemic we will not be able to celebrate this anniversary as we would like, but we will be holding commemorative events, because 25 years is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the activities carried out by AQU Catalunya and, above all, a well-deserved tribute to all those involved.
We begin commemorative activities by making a change to our corporate image. After 18 years with the current logo it was time to renew it under two premises that represent its essence: keep the legacy under the acronym AQU Catalunya and reflect our values.
I don't want to miss the opportunity to mention that this newsletter brings to number 100, another a milestone to celebrate. The first issue was published in September 1999 and discussed orientation towards the quality of AQU Catalunya assessments, the Dutch model that inspired us, the importance of university accountability to society, the publication of AQU Catalunya's first Report on the quality of the Catalan university system (based on assessments carried out in 1996 and 1997), the initiatives of the Council of Europe to guarantee the quality of higher education and the quality tools we developed to create a corpus on assessment.
I would like to end this editorial, as I have done on other occasions, by thanking the people who have led and are leading the Catalan universities, the Secretariat of Universities and Research and the respective Catalan Government Ministries for their support of the work developed by the Agency. I also wish to thank all the academics, professionals, students and staff of AQU Catalunya for these 25 years. Your efforts and commitment has been decisive in building an Agency that only aims to work with the highest quality to respond to the needs of the Catalan university system.
Congratulations!
[1] AQU Catalunya (2004): L’impacte de les avaluacions a les universitats catalanes (1996-2002)