AQU Catalunya's Advisory Commission holds its annual meeting of 2024
The members of the commission discussed the future AQU Catalunya teaching assessment manuals and presented the “Report on graduate employment outcomes and social mobility equity for Catalan on-campus universities”.
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The AQU Catalunya Advisory Commission met yesterday at the Agency's headquarters to hold its annual meeting. Chaired by the President of AQU Catalunya, Francesc Xavier Grau, and also attended by the Director of AQU Catalunya, Jaume Valls Pasola, as a member of the commission, the meeting began with the presentation of a report by Grau.
The President's Report focused on the new Framework for improving the institutional quality of the Catalan Higher Education System, which will replace the Framework for the Validation, Monitoring, Modification and Accreditation of Official Degree Programmes (VSMA Framework) that the Agency has been using since 2016. Grau also discussed the status of the new accreditation criteria for associate professors and full professors, which needed to be updated following the entry into force of Organic Law 2/2023 of the University System (LOSU). Moreover, he spoke to the members of the commission about the optional modules included in the Satisfaction Survey for recent graduates, which includes new modules with questions adapted to issues directly related to the current situation in the field, as well as questions from previous editions.
Following this, the Report on graduate employment outcomes and social mobility equity for catalan on-campus universities was presented to the members of the commission. Currently in the drafting phase, the document analyses the data obtained in the annual Employment Outcome Survey carried out by the Agency with a view to ensuring gender equity.
Lastly, the commission members shared their views on the review of the teaching assessment manuals that AQU Catalunya is currently carrying out. There is currently a task force in place to update the Agency's teaching assessment methodology with a view to responding to new developments in teaching assessment in the new regulatory context of the LOSU to enable the institutional assessment programmes, the VSMA Framework, to be introduced.
The Advisory Commission is the advisory body that assists the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency by advising on strategies, defining and improving procedures and drawing up proposals for action in order to guarantee the quality of the Agency's activities in accordance with international benchmarks.
In accordance with the terms established in the Agency's statutes, this commission is made up of national and international academics with international experience and recognised prestige, students from Catalan universities and representatives from Catalonia's major trade unions, who must be members of academia. All of them must have experience in quality assurance in higher education and research.