A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya

93

April 2019

AQU Catalunya's Action Plan for 2019, which was approved by the Agency's Governing Board at its meeting on 17 July 2018, has just been published.

According to the Agency's strategic areas of priority, new developments to be introduced in 2019 are as follows:

• Institutional quality: all degree programmes will be managed through the VSMA Framework; it is anticipated that around 80 ex-ante accreditations, 120 modifications, 130 external site visits and 270 ex-post accreditations of programmes of study will be undertaken; in terms of institutional review, it is anticipated that around 20 faculties and schools will be reviewed; all applications for institutional accreditation at faculty level will be processed; a protocol will be drawn up to incorporate the gender perspective into all QA procedures; and the assessment and review of research in one university department is to be completed.
• The quality assurance of teaching (teaching staff assessment): it is anticipated that a total of around 2,000 applications for the various categories of teaching staff will be evaluated, together with 700 applications for the assessment of merits in research; continuing support will be provided for the Serra Húnter Programme; and automatic notification is to be introduced through E-Notum. Planning of the third round of accreditation of the teaching assessment manuals used at public universities will also be undertaken.
• Knowledge generation and transfer: preparations will be made for the 2020 survey of graduate employment outcomes; the results and findings of the employers survey (of the skills and education level of recent graduates) will be presented according to different sectors of the economy; the satisfaction survey of graduates and master's graduates will be carried out and the results and findings of the survey of first degree graduates disseminated; technical supervision of the Via Universitària survey is to be completed; and AQU's new catalogue of indicators will be set up and the transition made to a new indicators platform for presentation purposes. In the area of reporting, work on the Qualifications Framework for Catalonia is to be completed, as will the profiling of successful teaching staff applying for assessment by AQU Catalunya, and the annual report will be produced for the universities.
• Internationalisation: all international projects that are under way will be completed, and all foreign institutions delivering programmes in Catalonia and institutions awarded international accreditation by AQU Catalunya will be monitored, subject to the availability of funding.
• Strategic management: the Agency's Strategic Plan for 2019-2022 will be approved; the monitoring report, including the Action Plan, for the external review of AQU Catalunya by ENQA in compliance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) will be drawn up; and the contract programme with the Government of Catalonia/Generalitat de Catalunya will be leveraged. In the area of experts, the Code of Ethics will be approved, the continuous training of experts working with the Agency will continue, and in the area of Communication the Agency's new website will be developed.
• Internal organisation: Impetus will be given to e-Administration; applications are to be developed and implemented to support AQU Catalunya's QA and knowledge generation and transfer procedures; and application of the Government of Catalonia/Generalitat de Catalunya's General Plan for Public Accounting will be consolidated.

During 2019 the Agency will also prioritise the consolidation of IQAS certification (for internal quality assurance systems) and thereby give impetus to institutional accreditation, improvements to the continuous training of experts, and deployment of the E-Notum e.notification system.