A quarterly publication of AQU Catalunya
The Research Assessment Commission has been working to adapt the accreditation criteria with a view to being able to issue the new accreditations from 2025 onwards.
More than 20 years have passed since the Catalan Universities Act (Llei d’universitats de Catalunya, LUC) was passed. The introduction to the LUC by the then Minister for Universities, Research and the Information Society contains notable references to the quality assessment policy, the restoration of stable employment for teaching staff, and the promotion of research. Later on, in the preamble, attention is drawn to the following basic premise: “excellence as an indispensable tool for making progress in all areas of university activity, and particularly in teaching, research and the transfer of technology and knowledge[1]”. Under the LUC, universities became central components in the research system. The role of university research centres was defined, with particular emphasis placed on university institutions, science and technology research parks, and so on.
With regard to the accreditation of teaching staff, the Agency set in motion a pre-accreditation programme for teaching staff via the Research Assessment Commission (CAR). Consequently, over a period spanning more than twenty years, the Agency and the CAR have issued more than 20,000 successful accreditations for the different categories of tenure-eligible lecturer, as well as accreditations for research and advanced research.
We can therefore conclude that the LUC and the hard work done by many individuals have made it possible to strengthen the research capacity of the Catalan Higher Education System, to the extent that it is now fully competitive at the international level.
As we discussed in an earlier article, and with specific regard to teaching staff, the new University System Act (Ley Orgànica del Sistema Universitario, LOSU) keeps the requirement for pre-accreditation. However, in the preamble to this law the emphasis is on the dysfunction affecting the makeup of teaching staff as a result of low replacement rates, the precarious nature of associate, interim, substitute and visiting lecturer positions, and the ageing profile of university teaching staff. According to the preamble, the priority objective of the LOSU is “the elimination of precariousness in university employment and the provision of stable and reliable academic careers”.
We can thus infer a reorientation of the strategic objectives when comparing the two preambles. As a result, and besides the research aspect (a key feature of the LUC), with the LOSU the new accreditation criteria include other aspects such as knowledge transfer, professional experience and (in particular) experience of university teaching.
The CAR made a commitment to our rectors to work on drawing up a new proposal for accreditation criteria that are adapted in line with this new context. Since the passing of the LOSU, and in addition to continuing its usual activity, the CAR has been working to adapt the accreditation criteria with a view to being able to issue the new accreditations from 2025 onwards. This is the main challenge facing the CAR at this time.
In addition to the new regulatory requirements and best practices in assessment put forward by the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA), when developing the proposed new criteria for hiring teaching staff the CAR has drawn on its prior experience of the implementation of the LUC, in which a commitment to quality was consistently at the forefront. The criteria set by ANECA for teaching staff in the civil service categories were also taken into consideration, as the LOSU places the civil service and contractual pathways on the same level.
It should be noted that in June of this year, the CAR approved the general accreditation criteria and, at the time of writing this article, the CAR’s various dedicated committees were discussing the respective and specific criteria for setting the thresholds associated with each of the main assessment areas. Subsequently, the Agency will create a space for public consultation or participation, so that it can listen to all perspectives and complete the process of drawing up the new criteria for the accreditation of teaching staff. If everything proceeds as intended, the consultation will take place in September. From this moment on, we invite you to make your contributions.
Although these criteria are still in the process of being drawn up, and are therefore subject to modification, there are a number of common elements that are worth discussing.
Firstly, the joint treatment of the teaching aspect based on the contributions of the Inter-University Council of Catalonia’s University Education Policy Committee. To this end, an agreement has been reached on common elements such as the weighting of the teaching aspect, the minimum teaching commitment necessary to apply for accreditation, and – perhaps the most relevant aspect – recognition by the CAR of “teaching quality” based on the assessments carried out by those Catalan universities in possession of teaching assessment manuals certified by the AQU.
Secondly, the need to fulfil each of the two main aspects (“research and transfer” and “teaching”) separately, so that a strength in one cannot compensate for a weakness in the other. We should also note the inclusion of professional experience in this new proposal. Thus, for example, evaluation committees will be able to assess this experience when it is related to a scientific specialisation. Moreover, it will be possible to recognise the assessment of professional experience, which should in turn make it easier to accommodate academic profiles that are less research-intensive but are nonetheless important to our system owing to the value of their professional experience.
Thirdly, the evaluation of “scientific and managerial leadership” is reserved for the accreditation of full professors; consequently, this aspect will not form part of the evaluation process for associate professors who are just starting out.
The discussion is ongoing, and over the coming months we look forward to receiving the contributions that are made via the public consultation process. In any case, we at the Agency and the CAR trust that this new proposal for criteria will help to make the aspiration to excellence in teaching and research cited in the preamble to the LUC compatible with the new requirements identified by the LOSU with regard to the stabilisation and rejuvenation of teaching staff.
1 Law 1/2003 of 19 February on Catalan universities.