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Quality assurance refers to all processes to ensure that higher education meets quality standards, following its mission, vision, and objectives.
As indicated in the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance of the European Higher Education Area, higher education aims to meet multiple objectives, and, consequently, stakeholders can consider quality in various ways, depending on the objectives they prioritize. ESGs also set out the dual objective of quality assurance: accountability and enhancement.
Internal quality assurance is the responsibility of higher education institutions and refers to their mechanisms to guarantee the quality of their activities, including teaching and, where appropriate, research and knowledge transfer.
External quality assurance is the responsibility of quality agencies or other similar bodies, and it allows recognition, coordination, and promotion of internal quality assurance, accompanying higher education institutions in continuous improvement and ensuring accountability with society.
Internal and external quality assurance are therefore complementary and work together and coordinated to develop a culture of quality in higher education.
AQUA's functions are:
- Evaluation, accreditation, and certification of the quality of learning and teaching leading to the obtaining of official degrees and of the different processes that may affect higher education institutions, with special attention to the framework of the European quality space.
- Evaluation, accreditation, and certification of basic and applied research activity of higher education institutions.
- Definition of guidelines, criteria, and indicators for the evaluation of quality in the fields of higher education and research in line with European and international standards.
- Development of studies for the improvement and innovation of the evaluation, certification, and accreditation processes of the higher education system.
- Issuance of evaluation reports addressed to higher education institutions, educational administration, social agents, and society in general.
- Advisory role for the educational administration, higher education institutions, and other institutions in the scope of its functions.
- Establishment of cooperation links and collaboration protocols with other foreign agencies entrusted with evaluation, accreditation, and certification functions.
- Creation, modification, or elimination of fees and public prices, as well as their management and collection, by what is established by regulation.
- Any other functions derived from its activity or delegated to it by law.
AQUA does not have competencies in the recognition of qualifications or language certification. Nor does it assess non-oficcial degrees.
The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance of the European Higher Education Area, adopted in 2015, are the common reference framework for internal and external quality assurance. These are designed to be adopted in various contexts and higher education systems.
ESGs include three parts: the first part refers to internal quality assurance, the second part refers to external quality assurance and the third part refers to quality assurance agencies.
The adoption of ESGs is one of the main commitments of the Bologna Process and the establishment of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), of which Andorra has been a member since 2003.
AQUA’s stakeholders and groups of interest are:
- Parliament of Andorra
- Ministry in charge of higher education in Andorra
- Agency Steering Committee
- Director of the Agency
- Agency's Evaluation Committee
- Agency's technical team
- External experts (peer reviewers)
- Higher education institutions in Andorra, including governing bodies, students, teaching staff and technical and management staff
- External collaborators and international networks
- Andorran society
The evaluation of study programs consists of evaluating their compliance with quality standards and criteria.
Currently, the evaluation of study programs is carried out at four moments of the life cycle of the state degrees: approval, modification, follow-up, and renewal.
For more information, you can consult our web section for the evaluation of study programs.
The accreditation of the institutions consists of the assessment of their compliance with quality standards and criteria.
Currently, the evaluation of the institutions consists of the evaluation of the strategic plans of universities and other private higher education institutions (IES) within the framework of their authorization.
The evaluation of teaching staff consists of the assessment of the profile of teachers who, not complying with the established conditions of Law 14/2018, of June 21, on higher education, want to teach state higher education degrees.
According to the standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), external quality assurance processes must be carried out by external expert groups.
The panels of external experts are made up of three people from different profiles, who accredit their technical capacity to act as external experts thanks to their experience and training. The panels are composed of an academic expert, a professional expert, and a student of a higher education degree related to the field of qualification subject to evaluation. The three experts are in charge of carrying out the corresponding evaluation, which may be of a specific curriculum or a new institution of higher education.
The members of the panels of external experts are paid for their participation in the evaluation they carry out. For more information, you can consult the section of the external experts’ pool.
To become a member of an external expert panel, you need ro register on the expert profile recruitment form.
When AQUA receives a request to evaluate a study plan, it will contact the evaluators in that thematic area to appoint the panel.
The higher education institutions in the Principality of Andorra can be consulted on the website of the higher education department of the Ministry of Institutional Relations, Education and Universities.