The Agency steps up its presence in the European Consortium for Accreditation (ECA) participating in its annual General Assembly as a full member and presenting its ALCAEUS in the Working Group «Innovation in QA and Accreditation».
On 6th and 7th of June 2019 took place in Riga (Latvia) the ACE Annual Meeting and Workshop. The technical team of the ACPUA participated actively both in the working groups and in the General Assembly. The meeting organized by the ECA Board had as the host The Latvia QA Agency (AIKA).
The working group Mutual recognition and joint programmes worked on the 6th of June and shared, among others, some issues such as the results of some programs (Impea program, joint programmes). They also developed an ECA workshop Future of universities and Quality Assurance and the General Assembly of the European consortium that also served to inform about the transition of the Secretariat from The Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO) QA Agency to The Castilla y León (ACSUCYL) QA Agency.
The working group «Innovation in QA and Accreditation» directed by Ronny Heintze from the German Agency AQAS, worked on the 7th of June. In this common workspace, the ACPUA presented his pilot 2030 program ALCAEUS for certification of universities and centers. Although it is still in an initial phase, collecting the views of experts, the program had a splendid welcome among the European partners, urging to continue to its final development, implementation and presentation of results in the upcoming meetings of European QA agencies. The social dimension of quality in higher education is taking special interest in the European bodies dedicated to Higher Education quality which are increasingly providing more resources to define common strategies in this field. A good example of it is the lecture given by Dominic Orr (University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia) under the title Social dimension in quality assurance which took place in the open session subsequent to the working group that ended the ECA assembly in Latvia.
ALCAEUS is the first specific program for 2030 certification of universities and centers ever started by a European QA Agency. The ACPUA is very proud of the recognition that this program is having among the forums in which it has been presented. The most important event was the International Meeting organized by the Agency in Canfranc by the end of May with the presence of national and international experts from universities, QA Agencies, students and experts. ALCAEUS is the result of the joint work carried out by the major stakeholders of the Aragonese University system over this past year and developed through a "capacity building project" awarded by the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE). This project led by the ACPUA and the AQUA has counted with the collaboration of the University of Zaragoza, San Jorge University, the students of both institutions, experts in quality and sustainability at national and international level, social partners and representatives of the Aragonese business network.
