Launched in: 2016
Staff responsible for programme: Management, Head of International Area
Bodies supervising: Committee of Experts (since 2020)
2024-2028 Strategic Line: L2
The goal is to strengthen:
- Develop strategic actions to improve the agency, taking into account the recommendations and compliance with the standards and guidelines of superior quality in Europe and promoting international cooperation.
- Integration of international experts into the ACPUA structure: AGENCY EXPERT COMMITTEE.
- Participation of international experts in ACPUA's external evaluation activities.
- Common understanding of student needs (Student-centred learning).
- Develop the renewal process in the European EQAR register through the evaluation with the European body ENQA and subsequent follow-up of the recommendations.
- Participate in the annual actions of the international organizations to which the Agency belongs: INQAAHE, ENQA, EQAR, ECA, UN GLOBAL COMPACT.
- Collaborate with other organizations for the implementation of international projects and/or evaluations: POCTEFA-INTERREG, UNITA EUROPEAN ALLIANCE, CoARA.
The specific objectives consist of:
Presentation DEQAR |
Presentation ENQA |
Cooperation Networks
Participation in projects
ACPUA participates often in international projects:
Evaluations
In the provision of these evaluation services, the ACPUA (carried out through the corresponding agreements) applies its evaluation criteria and guides and complies with the provisions of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG).
Principado de Andorra 
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ACPUA+INTERNATIONAL Seminars
- ACPUA participates in the United Nations Higher Education Sustainability Initiative
14 October 2025: ACPUA was once again invited by UNESCO to the meeting organised by the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), following the success of the presentation given by ACPUA (invited by INQAAHE) on 7 and 8 November 2024, with the international presentation "Future Proofing Accreditation, Standards and Education".
This United Nations initiative aims to create a community of good practices in sustainability in higher education, together with various international agents, including educators, accreditation organisations, academic associations, etc.
Link to the ALCAEUS assessment protocol: 220624_prog_alcaeus_v3.0.pdf (aragon.es)
Link to the HESI website: Higher Education Sustainability Initiative | Department of Economic and Social Affairs
- ACPUA, associate partner in POCTEFA-INTERREG from 2024 to 2027
15 September 2025: ACPUA attended the webinar organised as part of the DUAL TRANSVERSALIS project. This project, funded by the INTERREG POCTEFA programme, aims to promote the mobility of students in dual training contracts on both sides of the Pyrenean border. By promoting a common approach to the development of dual training, it seeks to create a cross-border training space that responds to several key challenges: improving the professional integration of students, strengthening the attractiveness of the territory and supporting economic development in strategic sectors.
ACPUA's role as an associate member in this project (invited by the University of Zaragoza and with funding planned until 2027) consists of promoting the strategic actions necessary to drive a progressive, targeted and well-founded exploration of university dual training experiences in the Aragon region, in the degree programmes and academic-professional fields of the University of Zaragoza that are considered most relevant in the course of the project.
Link to the project website: Poctefa
- ACPUA University Quality Seminar on Joint Programmes (international joint degrees)
11 July 2025: The seminar "International Joint Degrees and the European Approach", organised by the Agency for Quality and University Prospects of Aragon (ACPUA), took place in virtual format. The event brought together nearly 70 participants, a figure that represents a success in terms of attendance and reflects the growing interest of the University System of Aragon (SUA) in internationalisation and academic collaboration processes.
The session featured the participation of Eva Fernández de Labastida, president of the European Consortium for Accreditation in Higher Education (ECA) and head of internationalisation at the UNIBASQ Agency. Her presentation offered an expert and practical overview of the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes, addressing criteria, procedures and success stories in the evaluation of international joint programmes.
- The Second International Congress on Educational Care selects the ACPUA poster
3 April 2025: ACPUA participated in the Second International Congress on Comprehensive Educational Care, "Mental Health, Technologies and Care in Socio-Educational Communities," presenting its poster "Quality Generation: Design Your Likes and Be Happy."
ACPUA, through its ACPUA+Students Programme, conducted a study in 2022 on the impact of the pandemic on teaching, communication and the socio-emotional state of students. After reviewing the results, it was determined that there was a need to create a publication with the aim of providing young people with a self-help manual to reflect, create their personal strategy, discover their talents and share them. The publication, entitled La ACPUA aprende n.º 12 (ACPUA Learns No. 12), is available online on the ACPUA website and can be purchased from Editorial Certeza and in all bookshops.
Free publication on the ACPUA website: es_la_acpua_aprende_xii.pdf
Link to the International Congress: II Congreso Internacional del Cuidado Educativo Integral - Programa
- ACPUA, associate partner of the EUROPEAN UNITA ALLIANCE from 2024 to 2027
27 February 2025: ACPUA continues to collaborate with the University of Zaragoza and 11 other universities on its European University Alliance project called UNITA. This time, it met in Pamplona with the Quality Evaluation Committee (QEB) to present the results of the Quality Agencies' participation in the Alliance.
articipation of Quality Agencies in UNITA is both a novelty and a challenge. For this reason, from the Presidency held by ACPUA in the first phase and the Vice-Presidency in this second phase of the project, it has been important to reflect jointly on the task of advising on internal and external quality. At this meeting, we collaborated with another Spanish agency (ANECA), the Italian agency (ANVUR) and the Portuguese agency (A3ES), to which we have passed on the baton of coordinating the quality agencies.
Link to the UNITA project: - UNITA (univ-unita.eu)
- ACPUA INVITED TO GIVE AN INTERNATIONAL SPEECH BY INQAAHE and UNESCO
7 and 8 November 2024: The ACPUA has participated, invited by INQAAHE, in the international event "Future Proofing Accreditation, Standards and Education" organised by the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI), an organisation linked to UNESCO.
The seminar, which brought together entities from a large number of countries in charge of accrediting and certifying higher education degrees and institutions, aimed to discuss the need to include in the certification protocols of quality assurance systems specific criteria referring to sustainability issues, both in the governance of the institutions and in their training programmes and research activity.
The representatives of the agencies Andy Tunnicliffe, international expert and ACPUA collaborator, together with Isaac Galobardes, Director of AQUA, the Andorran University Quality Agency, presented the results of the project "Proposal of indicators for the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals in institutional quality accreditation" carried out jointly.
The ACPUA also had the opportunity to present its ALCAEUS programme for the certification of university centres' commitment to the SDGs and also its new Institutional Accreditation Renewal Programme which includes specific criteria on sustainability.
Link to the HESI event website: Future-Proofing Accreditation, Quality Assurance and Standards | Times Higher Education (THE)
- ACPUA´s Participation at the III Iberoamerican Seminar on Quality in Online Education
3 and 4 september 2024, Empowering Excellence with Artificial Intelligence. Panamá
The OEI and the ACPUA have shown their interest in collaborating to share evaluation approaches and, in particular, to disseminate the ALCAEUS protocol created by the Aragonese Agency, which aims to make visible the efforts of university institutions to develop the 2030 Agenda..
The presentation of the ALCAEUS programme took place by videoconference and was given by the quality assurance coordinator, Isabel Ortega;
VIDEO Presentación Seminario ACPUA (comienza minuto 33:15)
- ACPUA + International Seminar: University reform in Peru
Wednesday, February 1 2023.
Dr. Carmela Chavez, from the Peruvian National Superintendence of Higher Education (SUNEDU), holds a PhD in Sociology, having specialised in comparative university systems.
Her interesting lecture, chaired by José Ángel Castellanos, Vice-Rector for Academic Policy at the University of Zaragoza, took place in the Paraninfo of the University of Zaragoza, in front of an audience of directors of Spanish quality agencies, professors and quality experts from Spain and abroad.
- ACPUA+International Seminar (social perspective): The Universities of the Indigenous Communities in Colombia
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 at 5 p.m. (peninsular time).
Participants:
- Rosalba Ipía, promoter of the Intercultural Indigenous Autonomous University (UAIIN). Colombia.
- Libio Palechor, promoter of the Intercultural Indigenous Autonomous University (UAIIN). Colombia.
- Julio Gaitan. University of Rosario. Bogotá-Colombia.
- Antonio Serrano. Director of ACPUA. Spain
