ShareAQU Catalunya hosts a visit from the French High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education
The visit, which will last until Wednesday, also includes representatives from the French Engineering Degree Commission.
Starting today, AQU Catalunya will host a visit from the French High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES). The visit, which will continue until Wednesday, also includes a delegation from the French Engineering Degree Commission (CTI).
The visit will begin with a presentation of AQU Catalunya by its director, Mercè Gisbert, and Anna Prades, head of the Internationalisation and Knowledge Generation Area. The session will provide an overview of the Agency’s main activities and its experience in the international arena. This will be followed by a discussion on the quality assurance of transnational education, with particular attention to joint international university programmes, quality labels, including the WFME label, the assessment of degree programmes offered by foreign universities, and the evaluation of foreign institutions in Catalonia. The session will be led by Esther Huertas, head of the Quality Assessment Area, and Conchita Herruzo, a technician in the same area. The first day will conclude with a session on an innovative approach to external quality assessment, presented by Huertas, Herruzo and Albert Basart, coordinator of the Quality Assessment Area.
On Tuesday 8 September, the programme will include a meeting with the Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya, during which the Catalan legal framework for transnational education will be presented. Afterwards, AQU Catalunya and the French delegations will take part in a workshop for exchanging experiences on key quality assurance issues within the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), focusing on institutional assessment at university level. Huertas and Basart will be joined by Esther Adot, technician in the Quality Assessment Area, and Josep Manel Torres, Technical Adviser to the Directorate of AQU Catalunya.
The afternoon session will be devoted to quality culture and its promotion across the higher education sector, with sessions on external programme assessment, micro-credentials and the evaluation of the engineering sector. The session will be delivered by Basart, Herruzo and Noèlia Grifo, technician in the Quality Assessment Area.
Finally, on Wednesday 9 September, HCERES and CTI will present their activities to AQU Catalunya staff. The visit will continue with a second peer-learning workshop, focusing on communication and internationalisation policy, as well as the use of artificial intelligence in quality assurance. Representing the Agency in this final session will be Prades, Huertas, Torres and Núria Comet, Internal Quality Assurance Officer. This meeting represents an opportunity to strengthen international cooperation and knowledge exchange among European quality assurance bodies, as well as to share experiences and identify common challenges and opportunities in higher education assessment.