AQU Catalunya ESG Compliance Self-Assessment Report published
The report has been submitted to ENQA, which has coordinated a targeted external review of the Agency, in order that AQU Catalunya may continue to undertake external assessment of programmes and centres.
To undertake external assessment of programmes and centres, every five years AQU Catalunya must pass a review to establish whether it meets the expectations of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the EHEA (ESG).
The Catalan agency has undergone three such reviews (2007, 2012 and 2017), and in 2022 it will be the first agency to undergo a targeted review, which includes a self-assessment, an external review by an independent panel assigned by ENQA, and decision-making by ENQA and EQAR.
As on previous occasions, the European Network for Quality Assurance, ENQA, will coordinate this external review. Passing it would mean that AQU Catalunya can to continue as a full member of ENQA and will remain on the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education, EQAR.
The self-assessment report was drawn up by an in-house drafting committee and reviewed and validated by the Self-Assessment Committee.
The draft report was submitted for an opinion to a number of stakeholders: the Governing Council, the Vice-Chancellors Committee, Technical Quality Units, the Institutional and Programme Assessment Committee and its specific committees, the Appeals Committee, Students Committee and AQU Catalunya staff.
The self-assessment report is divided into six parts:
- Part 1: contains a brief description of AQU Catalunya and how the self-assessment report was prepared, and a summary of that changes that have taken place at AQU Catalunya since the previous review (2017).
- Part 2: explains the execution of the AQU Catalunya Action Plan 2019-2022 and the improvements made in accordance with the standards reviewed.
- Part 3: details the standards with which it only partially complied in the previous review and describes a standard for improvement.
- Part 4: explains how AQU Catalunya has dealt with the new assessment activities included in its catalogue, such as the assessment of micro-credentials and the review of programmes using the European Approach.
- Part 5: collation of the Agency's SWOT analysis, from the 2019-2022 Strategic Plan.
- Part 6: the conclusions.
The self-assessment report was approved by the Governing Council Standing Committee and a translation submitted to ENQA to initiate the external review of AQU Catalunya's compliance with the ESG. A site visit is expected to take place at the end of February 2022.