ShareAQU Catalunya holds a conference on the “European Approach for joint international degrees. Experiences in Catalonia and future challenges”
At the session, which was attended by more than 170 participants, the Agency presented the updated “Guide to the Ex-ante Accreditation of Joint Programmes Using the European Approach”.
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Today, AQU Catalunya held a conference on the European Approach for joint international degrees. Experiences in Catalonia and future challenges, which focused on providing a comprehensive overview of the implementation and purpose of the European Approach and the European Commission’s (EC) future strategy for the European Degree Label, which, according to Yann-Maël Bideau, policy officer at the EC, will be approved shortly. The conference, intended specifically for those responsible for joint international university programmes and the technical quality units of Catalan universities, coincided with the recent update of the Guide to the Ex-ante Accreditation of Joint Programmes Using the European Approach, published in 2020 to facilitate the validation of joint degrees by the institutions awarding them, which the Agency has adapted to additional provisions six and seven of Royal Decree 822/2021.
The conference, which attracted nearly 300 participants, also addressed the key elements involved in assessing degree programmes using the European Approach methodology and highlighted the work carried out by the Agency through practical case studies, as AQU Catalunya has now validated a total of eight programmes using the framework since 2021. This content was presented by both the Agency’s staff and external partners. Following a welcome address from the director of AQU Catalunya, Jaume Valls Pasola, Eva Fernández, representative of the Basque Country’s quality agency (UNIBASQ), gave a presentation entitled “European Approach: purpose and implementation”. Yann-Maël Bideau then presented The European Label: strategy for the future.
This was followed by a roundtable moderated by Valls entitled The European Approach for joint international degrees. Experiences in Catalonia: opportunities and difficulties. Representatives from several Catalan universities participated in the roundtable, including Meritxell Chaves (UB), Salvador Anton (URV), and Maria Galofré (UOC). Lastly, Esther Adot, from the AQU Catalunya Quality Assurance Department, gave the final talk of the session: Key aspects of evaluation using the European Approach methodology.
The European Approach, known in Catalan as the l’Enfocament Europeu, is the instrument that must be applied whenever Catalan universities cooperate with other European higher education institutions (HEIs) in joint programmes and the accreditation of that programme (ex-ante or ex-post) is mandatory for recognition in Spain and by other authorities and quality assurance agencies. It defines standards based on tools agreed upon by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), eliminating the need for additional national criteria, which facilitates integrated approaches to quality assurance for joint programmes.
The conference, held in Catalan, Spanish and English, can be viewed at this link. The new guide can be downloaded here.