In the autumn of 2012, EUA launched a new project entitled ‘Promoting quality culture in higher education institutions’ (PQC), in partnership with the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the University of Duisburg-Essen, the University of Lisbon and the University of Zagreb.
Background and concept
The PQC project follows up and builds on the recently completed EUA-led project 'Examining quality culture in higher education institutions' (EQC, 2009-2012). Research conducted within the framework of that project showed that while the majority of HEIs in Europe have built up quality assurance (QA) systems, those in charge of managing quality at universities feel the need for further capacity building in how to incentivise all stakeholders (students, academic and administrative staff) to take on the responsibility for quality, i.e. how to put Part 1 of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) into practice and build quality cultures.
The PQC project fulfils this need by developing and implementing a series of trainings with a practical approach to strengthening quality cultures and providing quality managers with the opportunity to exchange experiences and build connections for future cooperation at European level. Moreover, PQC will exploit the inputs gained from the universities themselves through the trainings to devise a workshop for the staff of the European quality assurance agencies. In this way it will communicate to the agencies how they can support HEIs in developing quality cultures through the external QA procedures which they design and carry out.
Objectives
The objectives of the project are:
- to build capacity of quality managers from HEIs across Europe to develop such internal quality assurance systems that are embedded in the institutional strategies and cultures;
- to promote European cooperation and sharing of good practices in the field;
- to raise awareness regarding the importance of internal QA and in particular quality culture;
- to advocate for the true implementation of the ESGs, i.e. the primary responsibility for quality lying with the HEIs and the responsibility to support HEIs in that process lying with the QA agencies.
Activities and timeline
The partners seek to achieve the project objectives through the following activities:
- presentation of the project at the European Quality Assurance Forum 2012 (November 2012);
- three two-day trainings for quality managers at European HEIs, in Zagreb, Duisburg and Lisbon (April-June 2013);
- workshop for QA agencies’ staff, raising awareness regarding the importance of internal QA and in particular quality culture (September 2013).
The presentations from the trainings for quality managers at HEIs are available below.
8-10 April 2013, Lisbon, Portugal
- Promoting Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions – Tia Loukkola
- Examining Quality Culture: Key findings – Andrée Sursock
- Quality culture: towards a “creativity agenda” – Ana Nunes de Almeida
- Promoting Quality Cultures – The Students View – João Faria
- Promoting quality cultures in UL: Innovation and creativity: The view of a QA agency – Madalena Fonseca
- Case Example: Promoting quality cultures in UL: Innovation and Creativity – “The view of Staff” – Ricardo Reis
- How to connect (integrate) QA to the decision-making processes at all levels? – Blaženka Divjak
- How to avoid hindering creativity at the university though bureaucratic QA processes? – Henrik Toft Jensen
22-24 May 2013, Zagreb, Croatia
- Promoting Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions – Ivana Juraga
- Examining Quality Cultures: what we know and what we don’t – Thérèse Zhang and Oliver Vettori
- Promoting Quality Cultures in the University of Zagreb – The view of Students – Mate Damić
- The University of Zagreb – developing quality culture at a decentralised institution – Prof. Blaženka Divjak
- Development of Quality Culture – ASHE Role – Vesna Dodiković-Jurković
- QC, QA: a decentralised, centralised activity? – Ana Nunes de Almeida
- Gallery walk: How to build effective communication structures to engage students – Dr Christian Ganseuer
- How to connect QA to the decision-making processes at all levels – Christian Stråhlman
- Promoting Quality Culture: Some promising ideas of how to engage the staff – Oliver Vettori
26-28 June 2013, Essen, Germany
- Promoting Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions – Ivana Juraga
- Examining Quality Culture: Key findings – Henrik Toft Jensen and Tia Loukkola
- The UDE‘s Quality Management System – Dr Christian Ganseuer
- Promoting Quality Culture – Dorit Gerkens
- Quality Management – A students' perspective – Andreas K. Klein
- How to engage staff in the shared goal of enhancing quality? – Blaženka Divjak
- Quality Culture and QA: Centralised and Decentralised – Sarah Ingle
- Summary of the gallery walk: Engaging students – Tia Loukkola
- Promoting Quality Culture: Some promising ideas of how to make something out of something – Oliver Vettori
Registration for the workshop for QA agencies’ staff is currently open to ENQA members.
Contact
For further information on the PQC project, please contact Ivana Juraga. Click here to download the PQC leaflet.
