Accreditation is a process of internal and external evaluation of a degree programme, aimed at assessing its quality and showing that it is being delivered as planned at the time of its verification.
All official university degrees must go through the accreditation process within six years of their initial verification (or last accreditation) in the case of bachelor’s and doctoral degrees, and within four years in the case of master’s degrees.
The accreditation process, defined in procedure P28 Degree accreditation of the UdG IQAS, has two stages: internal evaluation and external evaluation.
Internal evaluation is the process of analysing and assessing the degree, set out in an accreditation self-assessment report that includes an improvement plan. It is carried out by an internal evaluation committee on the basis of evidence and indicators, following the guidelines of the Guide for the accreditation of official bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
The quality of the degree is assessed across six dimensions, related to the previous verification and monitoring processes.
These dimensions cover:
The evaluation model proposes three additional optional dimensions:
This self-assessment report must be public and shared with the university community, so it is approved by the School’s Quality Committee and its Governing Board, made publicly available and, finally, approved by the UdG Quality Committee.
External evaluation is the on-site review of how the degree works, reflected in the external visit report. It is based on the analysis of the self-assessment report and on a visit by an external committee that interviews all stakeholders: the school’s management team, teaching staff, students, graduates and employers.
This external committee writes a report, structured in the same six dimensions, which is sent to the relevant AQU Catalunya subject committee. AQU Catalunya then issues the accreditation report, which may be favourable or unfavourable and has four levels: accredited with excellence, accredited, accredited with conditions and not accredited.
The degree’s accreditation report is officially sent to the competent state and regional bodies so that the administrative accreditation process can continue.
For degrees accredited with conditions, those responsible and AQU Catalunya agree on an improvement plan to be implemented within a maximum of two years. At the end of this period, the degrees must submit a monitoring report showing the results of the actions taken.
An unfavourable result would mean the degree is discontinued.
