ShareThe President of AQU Catalunya appears in Parliament
Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal appeared yesterday before the Research and Universities Committee of the Parliament of Catalonia to report on the results of AQU Catalunya in relation to the assessment of compliance with European quality standards.
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The president of AQU Catalunya, Francesc Xavier Grau Vidal, appeared yesterday before the Research and Universities Committee of the Catalan Parliament to report on the Agency's performance in complying with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. Grau, who appeared in the Catalan Parliament yesterday on behalf of AQU Catalunya for the first time since his appointment on 6 December 2022, also discussed the Agency's inclusion in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR).
The President of the Agency, who appeared accompanied by the Director of AQU Catalunya, Jaume Valls Pasola, began his presentation to the Commission with a brief overview of the Agency's main functions. "The Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency is the instrument responsible for guaranteeing the quality of the system. Its main task is the assessment and accreditation of university studies, but it must also provide relevant information to the agents in the system so that they can improve its quality", explained the president of AQU Catalunya before presenting the Agency's achievements in the field of quality at the European level.
Appearance before the Research and Universities Commission of the Catalan Parliament
First, Grau presented the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), which are the minimum quality requirements that higher education quality assurance agencies must meet in order to be accredited in the European context. In this respect, the president pointed out that AQU Catalunya has passed all the assessments of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), which is the European body in charge of checking whether quality assurance agencies comply with the ESG. AQU Catalunya, which was one of the first in Europe to carry out an ENQA review, was also one of the first to carry out the new version of the agency review proposed by this organisation (targeted review), as indicated by Grau, who then presented the various recognitions that AQU Catalunya had achieved in this review by the reviewers.
Secondly, the President of the Agency pointed out to the members of the Commission the prominent features of AQU Catalunya's registration in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), such as the fact that AQU Catalunya has been on the register since 2008, making it one of the first to be included. In addition, Grau also explained that the Catalan agency is the only Spanish agency on the register that substantially complies with the 14 standards that are evaluated and that, in the European context, there are only six agencies that reach this maximum level out of a total of 58.
Finally, Grau addressed the challenges facing AQU Catalunya in the coming years. Among others, he mentioned the deployment of the science law and the organic law of the Higher Education System - approved in 2022 and 2023, respectively -, the accreditation of short learning programmes - known as micro-credentials - or the treatment of higher education providers other than universities.
The parliamentary groups welcomed the Agency's appearance in the chamber and congratulated it on the good results obtained in its latest assessment. You can retrieve the hearing here (starting at 1:40):