AQU Catalunya updates the 'Guide to the validation and modification of PhD programmes'.
The Agency has also published the latest version of the 'Guide to the accreditation of recognised PhD programmes.
AQU Catalunya has published a new version of the Guide to the design, validation and modification of recognised PhD programmes.
The document is intended to provide guidance to institutions that deliver PhD programmes during the internal process of designing, reviewing and modifying their accreditation reports. In addition, it also aims to assist the Agency's commissions that will have to assess how the standards and criteria are being met.
Updated for the fourth time since its first version was published in 2011, the document incorporates several new features. Firstly, the content relating to the assessment procedure, which is a separate document from the guide, has been removed. The second is that references to the new laws regulating this area have been updated. In addition, the new competencies to be attained by PhD candidates, established in Royal Decree D576/2023, are also explicitly identified. Finally, the document includes a section on the types of modifications to the validated report.
AQU Catalunya has also published the most recent version of the Guide to the accreditation of recognised PhD programmes.
It sets out the standards and criteria for the accreditation of recognised PhD programmes and is designed to aid non-institutionally accredited universities in their internal self-assessment process. In addition, it aims to assist the Agency's assessment committee that reviews the achievement of the standards and criteria.
Updated in February 2024, this guide is now in its fourth version (the first was published in 2018). The current edition is the result of the publication of Royal Decree 822/2021, of 28 September, which establishes the organisation of university education and the procedure for quality assurance; and Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, regulating recognised PhD programmes, modified by Royal Decree 576/2023, of 4 July.
One of the main changes introduced in the revised document is the elimination of the content relating to the assessment procedure, which now forms part of a separate document. Secondly, the content has been restructured taking as a reference the Guide for the accreditation of Bachelor's and Master's degrees, which dates back to September 2022. Finally, among other changes, the normative references have been revised and the wording of the headings has been adjusted