Share30 years of AQU Catalunya: The Catalan quality assurance model
Throughout 2026, the Agency will publish monthly news items reviewing the main milestones achieved over its three decades of history, since its creation on 29 October 1996. The February instalment highlights the Agency’s distinctive model.
.jpg)
AQU Catalunya will mark its 30th anniversary in 2026 with the monthly publication, until October, of short features reviewing the most significant milestones in its trajectory. When the Government of Catalonia promoted the pioneering initiative in Spain to create an independent public agency dedicated to ensuring and promoting the quality of the university system, it did so at a time when, internationally, the movement towards the institutionalisation of quality evaluation was only just beginning to take shape, even before the start of the process of building the European Higher Education Area.
This commitment was not only ahead of its time but also deeply distinctive. From the outset, Catalan universities were integrated into the Agency’s Governing Council (known until 2015 as the Steering Council), thus establishing an unprecedented model of shared governance based on mutual trust, institutional co-responsibility and a collective commitment to continuous improvement.
A consolidated model
This system generated broad consensus and has endured to this day. In fact, it has expanded: following the approval of the 2003 Catalan Universities Act, the former consortium became the Agency for the Quality of the Catalan University System as it is known today, and its governance system became even more plural with the inclusion of private universities, which had previously been excluded from the Agency’s highest governing body. Subsequent reforms also incorporated highly regarded academics, students and trade unions into the Governing Council, which is currently composed of:
- The President of AQU Catalunya.
- The rectors of public and private universities in Catalonia.
- The chairs of the social councils of public universities in Catalonia.
- Three internationally recognised academic figures, appointed by the Inter-University Council of Catalonia.
- Two students appointed by the Council of Students of Catalan Universities, preferably one undergraduate and one postgraduate student.
- Two representatives from the government department responsible for universities, appointed by the corresponding minister.
- The Director of the Agency.
- The Chair of the Research Evaluation Commission.
- Two representatives proposed by the most representative trade union organisations that are members of the Inter-University Council of Catalonia.
This model, known as the Catalan model, has been key to consolidating a solid institution, rooted in its territory and fully oriented towards serving the higher education system in Catalonia. Some of the initiatives made possible by this model include graduate employment surveys, satisfaction surveys, and the preparation of cross-cutting reports on the quality of equivalent degree programmes offered at different Catalan universities.