ShareAQU Catalunya publishes its 2023 activity report
Last year was marked both by activities derived from legislative changes and by the approval of the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan and the 2024-2027 Equality Plan. The AQU Catalunya Governing Board approved the activity report in April 2024.Last year was marked both by activities derived from legislative changes and by the approval of the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan and the 2024-2027 Equality Plan. The AQU Catalunya Governing Board approved the activity report in April 2024.
AQU Catalunya has once again published the Annual activities and corporate social responsibility report, a document aimed at holding the university community and society in general accountable for the activities that the Agency has carried out during the previous year. The 2023 report, approved by the AQU Catalunya Governing Board this 2024, presents the Agency’s activity through an executive summary but also in a structured manner by social responsibility commitments and strategic priorities.
One of the most important activities of AQU Catalunya in 2023 was the implementation of legislative changes. Regulatory changes, which will also have an important impact on the Agency’s activity both in 2024 and in the coming years, firstly include the approval (in March 2023) of the Organic Act on the University System (LOSU), which made 2023 the last year in which the Agency would issue the preliminary reports for tenure-eligible lecturers. Secondly, another regulatory change with a direct impact on the Agency was the approval (in December 2022) of the Science Act, which mandates AQU Catalunya to issue the credentials of excellence in research, development and innovation. This new assessment process began to be designed in 2023 following the instructions of the Ministry of Research and Universities.
Strategic documents
Apart from the regulatory changes, the Agency’s activity in 2023 also saw the start of the institutional reaccreditation process, which applies a new institutional assessment methodology. Beyond this, AQU Catalunya also approved two documents particularly relevant for the Agency in the coming years. The first is the Strategic Plan 2023-2026, which shall guide the Agency’s activities in this four-year period. The second is the Equality Plan 2024-2027, which includes the progress in terms of gender perspective that the Agency aims to achieve in the next four years. .
It also highlights the activity carried out over the past year to transform the two annual calls for the issuing of teaching staff accreditations into a call that is permanently open all year round. In terms of appointments, 2023 was a year with two very relevant changes in two of the main commissions of the Agency. Neus Vidal, PhD professor at the University of Barcelona, was appointed new president of the Appeals Commission (COAPEL) replacing Maria Pau Ginebra, PhD professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Ginebra had left office to chair the Research Assessment Commission (CAR), where Lluís Torner, PhD, had finished his term.
On-site visits
In 2023, the year in which external face-to-face assessment visits were fully restored, the field work was also completed and the results of the eighth edition of the employment outcomes survey were presented to university graduates and of higher artistic education. Furthermore, AQU Catalunya was also responsible for the technical direction of the fourth edition of the Via Universitària survey in the field of knowledge generation and transfer.
Finally, the Agency has obtained a Certificate of Alignment with the Best Practice Guidelines of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) in the field of international alliances.
