A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
Over the last few years we at the Agency have consolidated our ability to adapt to major legislative changes. Without a doubt, these learning experiences will help us to keep moving forward and to keep working in order to help improve the quality of the Catalan Higher Education System, as we have always done.
This April, with great haste, a public hearing was convened for a proposal to modify Royal Decree 640/2021, which is concerned with the creation, recognition and authorisation of universities and university institutions, and other related regulations with the same scope. One might think, a priori, that the modification would focus on the necessary criteria for the creation of new universities; in practice, however, it also affects institutional accreditation and other matters that are no less important.
It is a pity (and we will not stop saying it) that quality assurance for universities is so frequently the object of reform. As the proposed reform complicates a number of the technical aspects related to institutional accreditation, I will focus my comments on just one of them: the internal system for quality assurance (IQAS), which plays a key role in institutional accreditation and has been the focal point of intense efforts by the Catalan Higher Education System in recent years. It is worrying that the proposed modification to the law sets fixed time frames for the certification of the design of the IQAS. From my point of view, this is not a realistic proposition; or at the very least, the time frames should be greatly extended. This is a critical and complex matter that requires a long process of implementation, adaptation and maturation, so that it can have an effective impact on the academic quality of the degrees taught by higher education institutions. The modification of Royal Decree 640/2021 makes reference to this, for both new universities as well as affiliated centres and foreign institutions. We hope that the final wording of the modification will be sensitive to this issue.
When I joined the Agency in November 2021, Royal Decree 640/2021 had been approved only a short while earlier. The previous director told me – or led me to understand – that quality assurance for universities was an activity in which the methodological guides and established guidelines had made it possible to adopt the necessary perspective and demonstrate the importance of the continuous improvement in university activity from within a stable framework. However, in September 2021 Royal Decree 822/2021 had just been approved, and the waters started to become choppy. The process of adapting to Royal Decree 822/2021 was complex, as I have mentioned in previous editorials in this bulletin. Just when we had reached a certain level of stability, the LOSU arrived; and then, at the start of 2025, when we had begun to get a reasonable handle on adapting to the LOSU, this proposal to modify Royal Decree 640/2021 appeared.
Allow me to end with a personal epilogue. My term as the director of AQU Catalunya began on a somewhat shaky note, due to a royal decree. Now that the end of my term is approaching (this coming September), it would appear that when I leave my post at AQU, the next director will also be confronted with the need to adapt in line with fresh legislation. Fortunately, over the last few years we at the Agency have consolidated our ability to adapt to major legislative changes and we have learned not to become easily discouraged. Without a doubt, these learning experiences will help us to keep moving forward and to keep working in order to help improve the quality of the Catalan Higher Education System, as we have always done.