The ACPUA Evaluation, Certification and Accreditation Commission approved a new version of the documentation of the Institutional Accreditation Renewal Program for SUA centers (see documents "ACPUA Documents") at its meeting on January 31.
After the implementation of the first evaluation for the renewal of institutional accreditation in the Aragonese University System carried out on two centers of the University of Zaragoza (School of Engineering and Architecture and Higher Polytechnic School), the ACPUA launched the meta-evaluation of the process by carrying out the following actions:
● Sending surveys to participants (both panel members and centers).
● Online meta-evaluation meeting in which the process was reviewed with representatives of the centers and panels and the first results of the evaluation tool co-creation workshop carried out with students from both centers were presented.
Having analyzed all the information gathered through the above actions, CECA has incorporated the following modifications into the ACPUA Institutional Accreditation Renewal Program:
● The visit to the center will always be in person (with the possibility of an online session if the center and the panel consider it appropriate) and its duration will be established according to the number of degrees implemented at the center.
The new eBox tool is included as a result of the co-creation workshop.
The self-reporting template is modified so that the centers briefly explain how they comply with each of the guidelines.
Furthermore, in the meta-evaluation session and in the responses to the surveys, it became clear that this is a complex process, so the time available for the panel to address the evaluation in depth must be sufficiently long. Therefore, evaluations will be planned annually to ensure that the centers have sufficient time to prepare for the evaluation and the panels have time to carry out the pre-evaluation and prepare the draft report after the visit.
From the surveys and the meta-evaluation session, it can be concluded that all participants in the process were satisfied with it, as well as with the results, and rated the usefulness of the process very positively.
