Academic quality, a transforming element
“Universities have changed radically their teaching ways over the decades and therefore, the introduction of institutional mechanisms of quality assurance has been key”. This is how the vice-rector for Academic Policy and Quality of the UB, Pilar Delgado, explained the relevance of the topics treated in the session “The University of Barcelona and academic quality”, which took place on Thursday, May 5.
The session was presided over by the rector, Joan Guàrdia, and included several speeches that reviewed the evolution and current status of the quality policy at the UB and in the Catalan university system in general. Also, the session included the explanation of three successful cases of the faculties of the University that obtained the certification of the internal assurance quality system were presented: Chemistry, Economy and Business, and Law.
“Universities have changed radically their teaching ways over the decades and therefore, the introduction of institutional mechanisms of quality assurance has been key”. This is how the vice-rector for Academic Policy and Quality of the UB, Pilar Delgado, explained the relevance of the topics treated in the session “The University of Barcelona and academic quality”, which took place on Thursday, May 5.
The session was presided over by the rector, Joan Guàrdia, and included several speeches that reviewed the evolution and current status of the quality policy at the UB and in the Catalan university system in general. Also, the session included the explanation of three successful cases of the faculties of the University that obtained the certification of the internal assurance quality system were presented: Chemistry, Economy and Business, and Law.
“The fact that we are today celebrating three successful cases at the UB shows the great amount of work, passion and enthusiasm of the people who participated in the topics of academic quality”, noted the vice-rector Delgado. The former director of the Agency for Policy and Quality, Gaspar Rosselló, explained how academic issues have evolved at the University in recent decades. “The UB has always been present when the Spanish and Catalan quality assurance agencies, AQU and ANECA, made proposals, and it has taken part in the initiatives of the Latin American field too”, he said. The current director of the Agency for Policy and Quality, Olga Pujolràs, explained the current situation at the different centers of the UB and the offered studies regarding quality policy. Both Pujolràs and the UB lecturer Jaume Valls, director of the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU), referred to the unfolding of the recent Royal Decree 822/2021 on the organization of university studies and the process to ensure its quality. Valls mentioned the challenges linked to the new teaching models (distance and blended learning), to micro-credentials for short-term academic programs and to the importance of the European syllabuses and quality assurance.
Miquel Vidal, dean of the Faculty of Chemistry; Ramon Alemany, dean of the Faculty of Economy and Business, and Enriqueta Expósito, vice-dean for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Law, took part in the event on behalf of the three distinguished faculties.