The Spanish university system as a whole and each of the university institutions have to respond to the commitment for meeting the needs and expectations generated by the society. In the context of a society based on knowledge and of growing internationalisation of university studies, it is an unavoidable challenge to ensure the quality of education in the different studies. Specially, when the society has trust and has provided considerable resources for universities to fulfill this function.
With the incorporation of continuous improvement strategies, the universities can develop and control its actions; they can review and redefine them for achieving the planned objectives.
Moreover, the regulations also indicate that the different assessment bodies (agencies) have to contribute through external assessment processes, to guarantee the university quality objectives. The combination of internal and external university actions and agencies has contributed to the establishment of internal quality assurance systems. Hence, not only universities, but also agencies, are required to establish its quality assurance systems (SGIQ), as well as they are subject to external evaluation according to the Criteria and European standards for the Assurance of Quality in the EHEA, adopted at Bergen (2005) by the signatory ministers of the Bologna process.
For supporting universities and especially university centres in the definition of the assessment agencies SGIC, ANECA, AQU and ACSUG was promoted the initiative of the AUDIT programme , with the objective of guiding and facilitating this definition.
Ultimately, with this initiative addressed to university centres, it is aimed the guidance of the design of the entire Quality Assurance systems designed by the centres. This programme therefore includes a process of certification of the design of the Quality Assurance systems. This process allows centres to ensure the adequacy and relevance of its design depending on the compliance of the requirements previously established.
The Universitat de València obtained in 2008 the approval in the verification process of the quality assurance system of the three centres:
- School of Engineering
- Faculty of Law and
- Faculty of Pharmacy
Currently, the Quality Assurance system is being implemented in all centres of the University, as it was agreed in the verification reports of all official degrees of the university.
In a third stage, the AUDIT programme will conclude with the certification process of the Quality Assurance System implementation. Currently, ANECA is validating the model for carrying out this certification.
