Policies and strategies for university quality

As the horizons of international competition, expand, institutions of higher education are called upon to adopt new transparency criteria for comparison and exchange of educational results and research.

From the Bologna Declaration and the Lisbon Convention to the London Communiqué, 45 EC countries made a commitment to reform expressed in the Bologna Process which established the foundations for the constitution of a European Higher Education Area by the year 2010 (EHEA). In accordance with international agreements, universities are called upon to create guidelines allowing for compatibility and transparency within systems of higher education in Europe to achieve comparable higher learning quality standards in the European area. These objectives have led to the foundation of the ENQA - European Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education – in order to develop an agreed set of standards, procedures and guidelines on quality assurance in the EHEA. To this end, on a national level, we have witnessed the reorganization of academic programmes and degree courses.

The University of L’Aquila promotes quality culture and intends on adopting a Model for Quality Assurance with the aim of sharing and comparing excellencies and striving for improvement thanks to effective review systems. Quality is therefore viewed as the ability to set objectives that respond to the demands of interested parties (students, families, society, research and the job market) and adopting transparent systems to set such objectives and to communicate results achieved. External reviews and peer reviews shall guarantee that results obtained can be accessed by society at large. Promoting quality culture is fundamental in our aim to create a system in which all sectors – teaching, research and services – contribute to improving one another until the ultimate goal of excellence is achieved. Review and transparency systems are important tools for the maintaining of excellence. A model for quality assurance is only obtained through the efforts of all staff members thus improving organization and creating a clearer definition of roles, functions and responsibility, In this way the sense of belonging is strengthened, qualifications of working staff are improved and the general working environment benefits.

The method we are discussing was introduced in the industrial sector to guarantee product quality, in saying this, our intention is not that of turning our University into a business, instead, our goal is to make it competitive and open to comparing results and interacting with the society at large; to be able to embrace the demands of the community and provide assessable skills and competence while conferring objective knowledge.

 

Prof. Ferdinando di Orio
Rector of the University of L’Aquila

You can browse the Quality Assurance Office’s organizational chart, partners, regulations and initiatives on our Italian portal.