AQU Catalunya, one of the first quality assurance agencies to be established in Europe, was an extremely innovative initiative at the time of its foundation in 1996. A source of pride for Catalonia. As it celebrates its 30th anniversary, it is only right to begin by congratulating those who had the vision and energy to drive it forward. And they did so exceptionally well. I would sum this up with a tribute to Josep Grifoll Saurí, who died far too young.
I would like to make three points about why and how the Catalan Universities Act (LUC), passed in 2003, incorporated AQU Catalunya as a central element of the Catalan university system.
1. By that time (AQU Catalunya had already been in existence for seven years), we all understood that university quality —particularly in terms of what is taught and how it is taught— required the ongoing, collective commitment of all the stakeholders in the system. This also had to be achieved effectively and in a way that respected university autonomy. Fortunately, there was no need to reinvent the wheel: with AQU Catalunya, we already had an experienced institution —a consortium— involving all the universities and the Government of Catalonia." I would add that having the Agency in place enabled us to make good use of the new opportunities offered by the Organic Law on Universities (LOU), passed a year before the LUC. Indeed, the LOU opened up the structure of university qualifications by replacing a catalogue-based model —in which the Ministry established a set of qualifications and defined their content— with a register-based model, under which universities themselves define their qualifications. This was a far-reaching change, as it encouraged innovation and the exercise of university autonomy. AQU Catalunya certainly had its work cut out. In my view, this lasting benefit is far more significant than the drawback of the potential confusion caused by the proliferation of university entry routes (bachelor's degrees). I am confident that this will evolve in the right direction, not least because AQU Catalunya is an agency fully equipped to handle complex tasks.
2. The LOU established the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), but also allowed for regional agencies. It is doubtful whether this would have happened had AQU Catalunya not already been in existence for six years, been a pioneer in Europe and established very close links with other early quality assurance agencies in European countries and regions (the Flemish had one too). AQU Catalunya was also a founding member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in the year 2000. It was therefore clear that AQU Catalunya needed to be strengthened by enshrining its institutional status in the LUC and defining its mission. And so the Agency was transformed from a consortium into a public-law body of the Government of Catalonia. If we had not done so, AQU Catalunya would have been at a disadvantage compared with ANECA and in its dealings with its European counterparts.
3. The LOU also represented a further step towards dismantling the traditional system of competitive civil service examinations, including the examinations held in Madrid. This system was a legacy of the way the Spanish university system had originally been conceived, with civil service corps organised by profession (academic gowns are colour-coded by profession, not by university). The civil service corps to which a lecturer belonged was more important than the university where they worked. And, contrary to the principle of university autonomy, it was the corps, not the university, that selected academic staff. Even so, the LOU sought to preserve a remnant of this system, retaining a vestige of what it had been in the form of accreditation requirements for academic staff. Once this had been done and the task had been entrusted to ANECA, it was again clear that it would be desirable for this work to be carried out by the autonomous communities too. We considered this, but soon realised that setting up an agency for the accreditation of academic staff was not realistic, so we assigned the task to AQU Catalunya.
I have always felt that the accreditation of degree programmes and the assessment of individual academic CVs do not generate synergies, and that AQU Catalunya would be better off concentrating on the former. However, I must admit that this view is shaped by a more fundamental reservation: I do not believe that the external accreditation of academic staff is appropriate, as it conflicts with the overriding value of university autonomy. In my view, when it comes to the selection of academic staff, a good university system should embody, on the one hand, the exclusive responsibility of universities for selecting their own staff and, on the other, a sound system of incentives to encourage them to prioritise quality.
My very best wishes for the next 30 years!
.jpg)