ShareAQU Catalunya publishes the ‘Procedure for monitoring the institutional accreditation of university centres’
The document incorporates a risk-based approach and reinforces monitoring as a tool for continuous quality improvement.
AQU Catalunya has today published the Procedure for monitoring the institutional accreditation of university centres. The document, which applies to all institutionally accredited university centres, integrates the monitoring of the centre's institutional accreditation, the operation of its internal quality assurance system (IQAS) and the delivery of the official degree programmes it offers. As stated in the document, the scope of the assessment is adjusted through a risk-based approach, while maintaining a common minimum review of institutional dimensions, indicators and compliance with the commitments associated with official degree programmes.
The new procedure, developed by Esther Adot, project manager in AQU Catalunya's Quality Assessment Area, forms part of the Framework for improving institutional quality in the Catalan university system (QUALINS Framework), approved by the AQU Catalunya Governing Board on 2 April 2025. Within this framework, risk analysis serves as a tool for guiding external quality assurance processes and focusing monitoring on those aspects that may have the greatest impact on the quality of education.
AQU Catalunya's new procedure focuses on areas for improvement and requirements identified in previous external assessment processes. The resulting monitoring report and assessment report will constitute two of the main pieces of evidence taken into account in the assessment process for the renewal of institutional accreditation. The assessment of monitoring adopts a perspective specifically geared towards continuous improvement and therefore does not entail a review of the ratings awarded for the standards.
Institutional monitoring therefore has a dual purpose. On the one hand, it is intended to provide university centres with an opportunity to reflect on and analyse the implementation of the various policies and the strategic plan of the university and the centre itself, its academic provision, the related services and the operation of the IQAS. On the other hand, monitoring is conceived as the basis for the subsequent renewal of institutional accreditation. In this way, monitoring and the renewal of accreditation are understood as parts of the same continuous improvement process, culminating in the external validation of the results achieved.
You can download the document here.