ShareAround thirty students participate in AQU Catalunya’s course on university quality assurance
The workshop, organized in collaboration with CEUCAT, aimed to train students to participate in the internal quality assurance processes of universities and in AQU Catalunya’s external evaluation processes.
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On Saturday, AQU Catalunya held the course Training for Students in University Quality Assurance, attended by around thirty students from various Catalan universities. The workshop, which took place at the Agency’s headquarters, featured participation from AQU Catalunya’s Director, Mercè Gisbert, who opened the session alongside Nil Cassany, Vice-President for Institutional Relations of the Catalan Universities Student Council (CEUCAT), with whom the Agency co-organized this training.
AQU Catalunya and CEUCAT organized this course to train students in the Catalan university system in quality assurance. The course aimed to provide attending students with useful tools to participate in the internal quality assurance processes at their universities, as well as in the external evaluation processes carried out by AQU Catalunya. In addition, the training sought to offer an overview of the latest developments in quality assurance, from both an international and local perspective.
The course, which had a theoretical and practical focus, included both lectures and workshops. After the opening presentation by Gisbert and Cassany, the first lecture was delivered by Pau Maza, CEUCAT Coordinator from 2023 to 2025, and aimed to contextualize quality assurance within the framework of the European Higher Education Area. This was followed by a lecture on higher education quality assurance, focusing on both evaluation as a tool for improving programmes and institutions, and on data as an essential element for decision-making. This session was led by AQU Catalunya’s Project Manager Albert Gili, Quality Assessment Area Project Coordinator Albert Basart, and Data Analyst from the Internationalization and Knowledge Generation Area Núria Mancho.
Next, the roundtable Internal Quality Assurance Systems (IQAS) and Student Involvement took place, moderated by Esther Huertas, Head of AQU Catalunya’s Quality Assessment Area. Participants included Antoni Ras, retired Associate Professor and former Vice-Rector for University Policy at UPC; Berta Roca, Quality Officer at the Faculty of Law, University of Barcelona; and Rubén Aparicio, student representative at the Open University of Catalonia and member of AQU Catalunya’s Student Committee.
In the afternoon, the workshops took place. The first focused on the preparation of the Student Report for the accreditation of centres and was led by Martina Tolós, a student at URV and member of AQU Catalunya’s Student Committee, accompanied by Aitana Martínez, a student at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The second workshop, focused on higher education evaluation, was conducted by Gili, Basart, and Huertas, joined by Pol Maceira, Project Manager of AQU Catalunya’s Quality Assessment Area. Before the day concluded, Gili presented the independent work required to complete the course. Attending students who complete this independent work after the course will receive a certificate—recognizing 25 hours of dedication—which they can submit to their universities to request credit recognition if allowed by their institution’s regulations.