Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS)

Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS)

Quality policy and objectives

WE-U has the CESES (Centre and Study Evaluation System), approved by the competent Ministry in Higher Education, for the monitoring and continuous improvement, among others, of state qualifications.

It describes the objectives of the evaluation, the procedures, and the specific quality standards and criteria that will be used as a reference for the evaluation. In addition, it describes the tasks to be carried out by the academic managers of the University during the evaluation process.

This system complies with Article 12 of Law 14/2018 and provides the basis for the fulfilment of Article 22 of the Decree concerning the organisation of state higher education qualifications (referred to as “Decree 2020” in the original documentation), which in turn is based on the ESG 2015 (Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area).

During the last quarter of 2024, the University Council will approve the regulatory development of this CESES (described in the IQAS Chapter).

The Centre and Study Evaluation System (CESES) essentially has the following orientation and objectives:

To help all WE-U Centres and Studies achieve a level of quality that allows them to confidently address the challenges that the university system in general will have to face in the short and medium term.

To encourage Centres and Studies to achieve or demonstrate that they have achieved advanced levels of quality in one or more areas of their activity.

To ensure compliance with WE-U’s mission to offer state and proprietary higher education of the highest quality, effectively using digital media for the distribution of educational content to students worldwide, and to create new knowledge for an interconnected global world.

To ensure the focus on the vision of offering high media quality of its educational content, closeness between faculty and students, the internationality of its community, studying from anywhere in the world, and the community’s contributions to knowledge about the internet world.

To assist in the decision-making of the WE-U University Council.The CESES is aimed, essentially, at state qualifications, and centres that carry out most of their training activity with state university qualifications.

Processes for monitoring and reviewing the study plan

The operational structure responsible for ensuring the internal quality of the institution is the Quality Committee and its constituent agents are:

One or two members of the Academic Council, one of whom will hold the responsibility of University Quality Director, who provide a strategic vision and ensure alignment with the university’s general policies.

A member of the University’s administrative and service staff, who provides perspective on administrative and support processes.

An external evaluator, who will be part of the external evaluation processes from the beginning.

And for each of the University’s programs, members directly related to the program will participate, specifically:

The person in charge of Program Coordination, who acts as vice-director of quality for the program and coordinates quality actions related to the program.

Two faculty members, one of whom will be the professor in charge of external internships, who provide academic and external perspective on the program’s operation.

Two student members, who provide the students’ perspective and ensure their needs and concerns are considered.

The specific responsibilities of the Quality Committee include:

Developing and maintaining the University’s Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS).

Conducting periodic evaluations of all aspects of the academic program, including course content, teaching methods, and learning outcomes.

Analyzing data on academic performance, student satisfaction, and graduate

employment.

Proposing and overseeing the implementation of improvements based on the evaluations and analyses carried out.

Ensuring compliance with national and international quality regulations and standards.

Fostering a quality culture among all university staff and students.
Preparing annual quality reports for the Academic Council and other university governing bodies.

Coordinating internal and external quality audits.● Managing the process of collecting and analyzing feedback from stakeholders (students, faculty, employers, etc.).

Regularly reviewing and updating quality-related policies and procedures.

The Quality Committee holds ordinary meetings twice a year, and extraordinary meetings in case of discovery of any deficiency in any of the aspects subject to evaluation, or at the discretion of the quality director, maintaining constant communication with all university departments. Its members are appointed for a period of two years, with the possibility of renewal, to ensure both continuity and the renewal of perspectives. To guarantee transparency and accountability, the Committee annually publishes a detailed report of its activities and results, which is made accessible to the entire university community.

Institutions must periodically monitor and review the programs they offer to ensure they achieve their intended objectives and meet the needs of students and society. These reviews must lead to continuous program improvement. Any action planned or adopted as a result of the review must be communicated to all interested parties.

These processes include the evaluation of the elements described in the section on evaluation items.

The CESES includes a quantitative evaluation when possible and a qualitative evaluation of all points.

Evaluation Items

The design of the study program will take into account the following items:

Student-centred learning, teaching and assessment

Institutions must ensure that programs are delivered in a way that encourages students to take an active role in creating the learning process, and that student assessment reflects this approach. The plan will be evaluated on whether it:

respects and addresses the diversity of students and their needs, thereby allowing for flexible learning paths;

considers and uses different teaching modalities;
uses various pedagogical methods flexibly;
periodically evaluates and adjusts teaching modalities and pedagogical methods;
fosters a sense of autonomy in students, while ensuring adequate guidance and support from the teacher;

promotes the creation of new knowledge about the digital era by students, initially at the bachelor’s and master’s levels and in-depth at the doctoral level;

integrates these knowledge creation proposals into the evaluation process, valuing the innovation and originality of students’ ideas;

provides platforms and opportunities for students to share and discuss their ideas and discoveries with the academic and professional community;● fosters interdisciplinary collaboration with students from other bachelor’s degrees or higher levels to address the complex challenges arising in the digital era.

promotes mutual respect in the student-teacher relationship;
has adequate procedures for dealing with student complaints;
the assessment criteria and methods and grading criteria are published in advance;

the assessment allows students to demonstrate the degree of achievement of the intended learning outcomes;

that students receive feedback, which, if necessary, is linked to advice on the learning process;

that the assessment is carried out by more than one examiner, whenever possible;

that assessment regulations take into account mitigating circumstances;
that the assessment is coherent, applied impartially to all students, and carried out in accordance with established procedures;

that there is a formal procedure for student appeals.
collects, organizes, and justifies student satisfaction opinions.

Student admission, progression, recognition and certification

Institutions must consistently apply pre-established and published regulations covering all phases of the student lifecycle (admission, progression, recognition, and certification). The processes for access to the Andorran university system and admission to the University will be public on the website, and will take special care to:

inform about the enrollment process;
inform about the process and requirements for access to the Andorran university system for international students;

inform about the process and requirements for admission to each study plan;
inform about the process and regulations for the recognition of training periods;
inform about the regulations for permanence in studies;
inform about the modalities for following the study plan (full-time or part-time);
inform about the price of each course;
inform about the qualification to which the study plan leads.
offer specific guides for the homologation or equivalence of the qualification abroad;

provide information on support services for international students, including linguistic and cultural advice;

provide resources in multiple languages to facilitate access to information for students from different countries;

offer online information sessions adapted to different time zones to servestudents from all over the world;
inform about scholarship and financial aid options available for international students;

detail language proficiency requirements and offer preparatory language courses if necessary;

offer a personalized attention service for international student inquiries during the admission process; The indicators to guarantee this ESG come from the public information on the University’s website.

Teaching staff

Institutions must ensure that their teaching staff are competent. They must apply fair and

transparent processes for the recruitment and development of staff. It will be evaluated whether:

clear, transparent, and fair processes for staff recruitment are established;
opportunities are offered to teaching staff and professional development is promoted;

academic activity is stimulated to strengthen the link between education and research;

the workload of teaching staff and the proportion of teaching and research tasks are reviewed;

innovation in teaching methods and the use of new technologies are encouraged.
collects, organizes, and justifies teaching staff satisfaction opinions.
student satisfaction opinions are classified by country of origin to ensure that teaching staff are perceived with quality by all cultural communities.

mechanisms are implemented to foster proximity and interaction between teaching staff and students, such as: regular personalized tutorials; online discussion forums moderated by teaching staff; live question and answer sessions;

the frequency and quality of interactions between teaching staff and students are measured and evaluated through indicators such as: teaching staff response time to student inquiries; level of teaching staff participation in discussion forums; student satisfaction surveys on the accessibility and support of teaching staff.

Administrative and technical staff

It is evaluated whether:

the administrative and technical staff is adequate in quantity and qualification for the number of students and the needs of the program;

the administrative and technical staff has the necessary linguistic and intercultural skills to adequately serve international students, including oral and written proficiency in Catalan and at least the foreign vehicular languages of the program; and knowledge of specific procedures for international students(homologations, equivalences, etc.);

adequacy can be verified from the data on administrative and technical staff of the University collected in the self-assessment report. In particular, the self-assessment report should include a list of staff profiles and indicate, for each of these profiles, their connection to the center, professional experience, and suitability for the fields of knowledge related to the University’s qualifications;

training actions for its staff are regularly developed;
the latest staff training actions carried out at the center can be described.

Learning resources and student support

Institutions must have appropriate funding for learning and teaching activities and ensure learning resources and student support that are adequate and easily accessible. WE-U’s special multi-format characteristic makes it particularly sensitive to resources that enable learning in each of the modalities. It is evaluated:

if the materials are sufficient for the cognitive learning established in the subjects and for the development of the TFB (Final Bachelor’s Thesis);

if the tools are sufficient for synchronous or asynchronous communication (as appropriate) planned in the subjects and for the development of the TFB;

if the technology allows for the guaranteed assessment of student learning.
if the technology is attractive to students and encourages their active participation;

if media content (videos, podcasts, infographics, etc.) is of high quality and produced with professional standards;

if media resources are varied and adapt to different learning styles;
if audiovisual materials are accessible (subtitles, transcriptions, etc.) to all students;

if media content is regularly updated to reflect advances in the bachelor’s field;
if innovative technologies (such as virtual or augmented reality) are used to enhance the learning experience;

if media resources are effectively integrated with other learning materials to offer a cohesive educational experience.

if resources are available for conducting online surveys and questionnaires.
if guides and tutorials on research methodology adapted to the bachelor’s level are available.

Public Information

Institutions must publish clear, rigorous, objective, up-to-date, and easily accessible information about their activities, including programs. The University maintains clear, public, and easily accessible information about the training programs offered, which, at a minimum, includes:

the selection criteria for access,● the intended learning outcomes,
the qualifications awarded,
the teaching, learning, and assessment procedures used
the learning opportunities made available to students,
data on graduate employment.
specific information for international students, including: specific admission requirements for international students; support services available for international students, such as linguistic and cultural advice; availability of informational materials in various languages to facilitate access and understanding.

details on international mobility options and agreements with other universities.