ShareInternational recognition for AQU Catalunya's incorporation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
AQU Catalunya was cited in the final report of the Bologna Follow-up Group and by Dr Maryna Lakhno for its incorporation of the sustainable development goals into institutional accreditation processes.
The final report of Bologna Follow-up Group (BFUG), presented at the end of May in Tirana (Albania), referred to a report in which AQU Catalunya appears as an example to follow in terms of incorporating sustainable development goals in when assessing the quality of higher education centres. Along with the cases of Ireland, Croatia and Austria, AQU Catalunya stands out in this report, entitled Linking quality assurance and the social dimension of higher education: literature review and mapping national practices, for its implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the institutional accreditation of the Catalan Higher Education System. The Bologna Follow-up Group monitors the Bologna Process through interstate ministerial meetings. Currently, there are 49 states that have adhered to the Bologna Declaration.
In addition, the Catalan Agency was also mentioned this May by the doctor of philosophy Maryna Lakhno, who referred to the Agency in relation to this same issue. In her paper Intermediary organizations and their role in advancing the SDGs in higher education, Lakhno explores how intermediary organisations facilitate the adoption of the SDGs, conceived as a global policy framework, in local contexts. The Catalan case, she points out, "exhibits a process through which intermediary organisations engage effectively with Catalan higher education institutions by forging a platform of collaboration" which ended up leading the Catalan government to "delegate the task of promoting the SDG” to intermediary organisations.