A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
AQU Catalunya wishes to continue promoting institutional accreditation, and will therefore propose a new framework for the improvement of the institutional quality of the Catalan university system to the next Academic Council, which will serve as a guide in the assessment processes.
Organic Law 2/2023, of 22 March, on the University System (LOSU), the most recent law of the highest rank regulating universities in Spain in many ways constitutes an opportunity not fully taken advantage of for the necessary modernisation of the system of organisation, governance and university autonomy that directly affects Catalan universities. Without detracting from the merit of some of the liberalising provisions it contains, such as the progress made in putting civil servants and contracted teaching staff on an equal footing, it remains a law that intervenes excessively - and sometimes, unnecessarily - in the organisation of universities, and which consecrates a unique model of university educational institution based exclusively on the research university. This makes it an exceptional case in Europe and all advanced economies, full of provisions or instructions on the behaviour of universities that are not accompanied by any indication of how they can be monitored or what effects a possible breach would have.
In this sense, the LOSU’s references to the obligation to be accountable for the use of economic and material means and human resources are significant; to the continuity in the distinction, also unnecessary in essence, between official degrees and university-certified degrees; to the insistence on the interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinary nature of research activity; to the call for cooperation, coordination and participation, with a whole title of its own, Degree V, as well as Degrees VI and VII on society and culture and internationalisation of the Catalan Higher Education system. Except in the case of official degrees, for which there are specific regulations, in all the other cases mentioned some kind of declaration of principles or stipulations are made without further development. It will soon be two years since the approval of the LOSU: what real effect have these degrees had on the activity of universities? Who has been able to verify or measure the level of internationalisation or the interdisciplinarity of research? In short, these are statements about what universities should be concerned about and should address that are not linked to any evaluation and monitoring mechanism.
At the same time, the LOSU makes a very tentative mention of institutional accreditation, in sections 4 and 5 of article 5, saying that this is the responsibility of the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA) and the regional agencies, and that it is the Spanish government that must regulate the procedure and conditions for institutional accreditation, based on recognition of the university’s capacity to guarantee academic quality. In fact, there is already a regulation in force based on article 14 of Royal Decree 640/2021 of 27 July on the creation, recognition and authorisation of universities and university centres, and institutional accreditation of university centres, which governs everything that has to do with the application for institutional accreditation, the conditions that university centres must fulfil in order to obtain it, and the procedure itself. There is also a resolution of the General Secretariat of Universities (2022), which issues instructions on the procedure for the institutional accreditation of public and private university centres, and publishes the Protocol for the certification of internal quality assurance systems of university centres and the Protocol for the evaluation procedure for the renewal of the accreditation of university institutions, approved by the General Conference on University Policy.
All of this clearly conveys an image of disconnection that is negative for the progressive development of a culture of quality assurance that will lead to the institutional accreditation not only of the centres, but also of the universities themselves. On the one hand, we have bureaucratic procedures and protocols, based almost exclusively on teaching activities, and on the other, statements about everything that universities should develop at all levels when exercising their autonomy.
In the last course organised by the Menéndez Pelayo International University and the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) on the challenges and opportunities involved in the implementation of the LOSU, the Secretary General of Universities announced a willingness to review Royal Decree 640/2021. This is a great opportunity to bridge the gap between the LOSU’s ineffectual statements and the practice of institutional accreditation, and thus to solidly promote it as a pillar of quality assurance.
Indeed, institutional accreditation - at present only of individual centres but in the longer term of universities - should provide for everything that is identified by the LOSU as necessary features of university activity: not only the quality of teaching and of research activity and the suitability of teaching and research staff, but also the organisation, the allocation of resources, the relationship with society, actions implemented to promote internationalisation, accountability, etc.
Accreditation encompassing these characteristics would also allow one of Spain’s other peculiarities at international level to disappear: the distinction between official degrees and university-certified degrees. Institutional accreditation could provide a way of granting official recognition to any Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programmed by the universities that is appropriately resourced and taught. In short, the process for the authorisation of any Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (its official status would no longer need to be specified) should ensure the level of training (Dublin descriptors), the allocation and availability of adequate human and material resources, and social and economic rationale.
Until such time as there is a revision of Royal Decree 640/2021, this must in any case be adhered to. However, AQU Catalunya wishes to continue promoting institutional accreditation, and will therefore propose a new framework for the improvement of the institutional quality of the Catalan university system to the next Academic Council, which will serve as a guide in the assessment processes, and which will, as far as possible, incorporate some of the elements mentioned above, so as to provide an internationally recognised framework through which the quality of the training programmes offered in the Catalan Higher Education System and by the institutions themselves can be evidenced.