The Assessment Plan and Improvement of Academic Performance (PAMRA), developed between 2002 and 2004, was one of the initiatives of reflection and debate that the University of Valencia launched in order to create a cultural change towards the quality challenges raised in the context of the European Higher Education Area.
At first, the analysis arose in response to the Permanency Regulations, but quickly the same design of the assessment process and the dynamics established by each of the committees involved in its development and in the diagnostic evaluation, directed the process towards improvement proposals that obviously meant a transformation of the university to higher quality settings.
Aspects such as, the structure of the curriculum, the organisation of teachings, the programmes of subjects, the planning of teaching, the type of entry of students, the teaching staff, the management of teaching, etc., which are important when we talk about the academic performance of students, already were valued in many degrees of our university in the context of the Quality Plan of the universities. However, for this project it was required a greater effort focused on practical measures applicable from the first year of entrance of our students. This was a specific way of starting to innovate with certain courses, of thinking on concrete students, so the measures that were adopted from that moment meant an irreversible and transportable process for the successive academic years.