Share30 years of AQU Catalunya: Three frameworks for the continuous improvement of the Catalan university system in programme and institutional evaluation
Throughout 2026, the Agency will publish monthly news items reviewing its three decades of history from different perspectives. The March edition highlights the quality assurance model for university programmes and institutions in Catalonia.
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AQU Catalunya will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026 with monthly information briefs, published until October, reviewing the most significant milestones in its history. Since its creation, the Agency has been dedicated to assuring and promoting the quality of university programmes in the Catalan university system (SUC), as well as the institutions that deliver them. To achieve this, AQU Catalunya has adopted a framework-based model. This approach results from agreements reached by the entire university system and highlights a collective commitment to a culture of quality.
This approach has allowed the system as a whole to adopt a broad perspective in which quality improvement is a key aspect and is not limited exclusively to passing external evaluation processes. The involvement of universities, students and experts in the development of the frameworks, as well as their collective approval by the Agency’s highest governing body —in which the various stakeholders of the SUC are represented, as explained in the February information brief— demonstrates a shared approach to quality based on consensus, trust and commitment to continuous improvement.
The first framework approved was the VSMA Framework in 2010. Its main objective was to logically link the four evaluation processes required by the regulations in force at the time for official degrees —verification, monitoring, modification and accreditation— in order to ensure greater conceptual coherence and efficiency in managing the different evaluation processes. This outlined the path towards continuous improvement of programmes. That initial document framed the scope of the guidelines and methodological documents that followed.
The VSMA Framework was revised in 2016 to align it with the new Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) —approved in 2015— and to better respond to the quality assurance needs of programmes within the SUC. The foundations of this framework were based on four elements: certification of quality assurance systems; improvements in document management associated with processes; a focus on accreditation; and the use of benchmarks to facilitate the design of new programmes.
Finally, in 2025 the QUALINS Framework was approved. This framework is currently the reference model for quality assurance in the SUC, promotes institutional autonomy, and supports external quality assurance processes at institutional level, taking into account innovations within the EHEA. The implementation of the QUALINS Framework is characterised by three main features. First, it establishes cycles for institutional accreditation. Second, it aligns external quality assurance processes for study programmes with these cycles. Finally, it introduces the concept of a self-accredited institution, intended for centres that have renewed institutional accreditation. All these elements would allow, in the long term, progress towards a scenario in which SUC universities could be considered self-accredited universities.
Continuous improvement as the central axis of our frameworks
The three frameworks have been designed in line with the vision that has traditionally guided AQU Catalunya’s approach to the quality of programmes and institutions: continuous improvement. This means that, throughout the different stages of evaluation, programmes and institutions progressively improve as they complete each process and move on to the next one. Before these three frameworks, programme and institutional evaluation carried out by AQU Catalunya included the Pilot Plan for adapting degrees to the EHEA (2004–2009), the Evaluation Programme for Official Postgraduate Programme Proposals (2005–2008), and the Experimental Monitoring Programme for Official Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees (2009–2010).
Thanks to its compliance with the most demanding standards in its field, the Agency has also stood out over its three decades for its membership in international organisations such as the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), and the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME). In addition, AQU Catalunya has been certified under the ISO 9001 quality management standard since 2006, a certification that has been renewed over the past 20 years.