News

By means of the  Resoluction of october 7 2016 (Official Journal of Galicia (DOG) of december 10, 2015), the ordinary call for the application of compensation bonuses for recognition of teaching and/or research work was approved and the period for submittal of requests was opened.

Access to the application for submitting a request

Submission's deadline: January 3, 2017

The ACSUG has attended the 11th European Quality Assurance Forum (EQAF), which it has been organized from the 17 to 19 November 2016 in Ljubljana (Slovenia). The EQAF is an annual forum where the stakeholders, including students, universities, university quality assurance agencies, etc. can exchange experiences in higher education.

On 20 and 21 October, it was celebrated the 2016 General Assembly of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). The ACSUG Director attended the meeting in representation of ACSUG, as an agency full member of ENQA.

As usually, before the General Assembly, it was organized a forum, with the attendance of more than 200 representatives of the 49 agencies members of ENQA. In the forum, different topics regarding the quality assurance in higher education were discussed in round tables, debates, presentations and posters. The ACSUG presented a poster about the labor insertion surveys of the graduates in the different types of degrees in the Galician University System. During the poster presentation, it was fomented an interchange of opinions with the attendants regarding the main results and relevant aspects of the labor insertion, such us the percentage of people who found a job, where and how they found it and the competences most valued to access to the job position.

Afterwards, in the General Assembly, the admission of new ENQA memberships was approved, among which it is the Aragon Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ACPUA), so there are already 8 Spanish agencies full members of ENQA. Then, they were also approved the 2016 annual accounts and the 2017 budget and planning of activities by the voting members.

A meeting in the ACSUG offices with representatives of the Doctoral Schools, Degrees Vice-rectorates and Quality Areas of the three Galician Universities was hold Last 24 October 2016. The main aim of the meeting was to work and in the contents and the minimum requirements of the guide document regarding the follow-up and renewal of accreditation of the Doctoral Degrees.

On Monday 17th October, Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University System has carried out the report’s presentation: “Labor market insertion of Galician University System Graduates 2011-2012”. This presentation was made by General Secretary of Universities, D. José Alberto Díez de Castro; president of the ACSUG board of Directors, D.ª María Patrocinio Morrondo Pelayo and ACSUG executive director, D. José Eduardo López Pereira.

 

This report is framed within the labor market studies of the Galician University System Graduates, which are carried out regularly by ACSUG since 2001. Now, as the latest release in its series of labor market insertion studies produced for graduates of the SUG, which compiles the results obtained from the tenth survey given to graduates from the SUG universities performed in December 2014.

The survey simple in this most recent study represents approximately 58% of the total population of graduates, including 4,687 graduates (diplomas, bachelor’s degrees, engineering and architecture degrees, and technical engineering and architecture degrees), and degrees.

The main conclusions from this report are:

 

The call for applications is being published for participation by universities in the process for Certification of Implementation of Quality Guarantee Systems (SGCs in Spanish).

The time period for submitting applications begins on 24/10/2016 and ends on 25/11/2016.

Interested universities must complete the participation application.

• Application

The INTERNATIONAL TRAINING SEMINAR FOR SPECIALISTS IN SELF-ASSESSMENT AND UNIVERSITY ACCREDITATION is been celebrated in the ACSUG venue. The participants of the seminar are teachers, students and graduates of the San Martín de Porres University (USMP) from Lima (Peru). The official opening of the seminar counted with the presence of the Galician Secretary of Universities (PhD Mr. José Alberto Díez de Castro), the ACSUG President (PhD Ms. Patrocinio Morrondo Pelayo) and the ACSUG Director (PhD Mr. José Eduardo López Pereira).

The attendees are going to participate in five busy conference days, in which some of the topics in the agenda are: “The role of ACSUG in the different evaluation programs”, “The monitoring and accreditation of degrees”, “The recognition of curricular excellence” or “The teaching staff accreditation”, always combining the theory and practice with the resolution of practical case.

The last two days, the Universities of Santiago de Compostela and Coruña are going to be the venue of the meeting, respectively. In both universities, after an official reception by the Rectors, the attendees could check the perception of the Galician universities about the different evaluation processes carried out by ACSUG.

ACSUG developed different activities along the past month July, with the aim to work in the continuous improvement of its procedures of evaluation of degrees (monitoring and accreditation) and its procedures of centers assessment (quality assurance systems).

Firstly, with the objective to gather information from the different stakeholders (coordinators and responsible of degrees and external evaluators), some surveys have been carried out to measure the satisfaction with the call of 2015/5016. In the surveys, among other aspects, the questions were about the documentation, organization and development of the different evaluation processes.

After that, two meetings were organized in ACSUG to analyze and to reflect on all the information available about the processes with the main aim to detect weak points and to make improvement proposals.

Among other topics discussed during the meetings, we can emphasize the following: the way of presenting the documentation by the universities, guidelines, templates, timetables of the evaluations, organization and development of the site visits, etc. A first planning of the next evaluation call 2016/2017 was also an important topic in the meetings.

Meeting with evaluators, representatives of each of the branch of knowledge commissions of ACSUG in the area of degrees (14.07.2016)

Meeting with representatives of the Degrees Vice-Rectorates and Quality Assurance Areas of the three Galician Universities (21.07.2016)

On Thursday, July 21st the Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University System (ACSUG in Spanish) released its publication: “Labor Market Insertion Study for Master's Degree Graduates in the Galician University System, 2010-2011”. Participants in this event included the General Secretary of Universities and the president and director of the ACSUG.

Since 2001, the Agency for Quality Assurance in the Galician University System (ACSUG) has provided information on the integration of graduates from the Galician University System into the employment market, for 1st and 2nd cycle degrees (diplomas, bachelor’s, and engineering) and undergraduate degrees (grados). With the new structure for university studies now in effect (undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate), it has become essential to have information about the entry of master’s degree graduates into the workplace. For this reason, in 2013 the Agency began a new project by expanding the scope of its studies to include master’s degree graduates from the SUG, becoming the first agency in Spain to carry out an analysis of this type. As a continuation of this initiative, the ACSUG is publishing its second report focused on this theme: "Labor Market Insertion Study for Master’s Degree Graduates in the Galician University System, 2010-2011"(EILMásteres1011).

This publication analyses the results obtained from the second survey of SUG graduates with official master’s degrees, which was given in June and July of 2014, approximately three years after they had completed their degrees. The primary objective of this report is to provide information on university graduates earning their master’s degrees in the Galician University System, in a manner that will allow the results obtained to contribute to improving the quality of the university education offered to future students. The information compiled addresses the following subjects: evaluation by the master’s degree graduates regarding organizational aspects of the master’s degree program and its presentation; their main motivations for pursuing master’s degree studies; and their assessments of their professional experiences during the last few years, both before and after earning their master’s degree. The report also concludes by comparing the results obtained from the two studies performed for master’s degree graduates, those from the 2010-2011 and 2009-2010 academic years.
The study found that the primary motivation for enrolling in master’s degree studies was to complement existing academic training in order to obtain better specialization in the job market, with a percentage of 57.6%, followed by complementing previous academic training in order to pursue a doctorate and work in research, with a percentage of 30.1% for the SUG as a whole. In relation to the distribution by fields of study, the motivation of complementing academic training in relation to the job market is highest in the fields of Engineering and Architecture (68.0%), Health Sciences (61.4%), and Social and Legal Sciences (56,0%), compared to the fields of Arts and Humanities (53.8%) and Sciences (51.6%), where higher percentages were found for the motivation of complementing education to pursue a research career.

With respect to the employment situation prior to earning the master’s degree, 68.3% of the master’s degree graduates were working before enrolling in their master’s program, 8.5% had looked for work but had not found it, and 23.2% had not been looking for employment. Furthermore, at the time of beginning the master’s degree program 61.6% were working at the same time as studying for their degree, while only 4.7% left their job to pursue the master’s degree.

As a new aspect included in this study, the employment trajectory of the SUG master’s degree graduates was also analyzed, from the time at which they completed their master’s degree until the time at which the survey was given. It was found that 91.9% of the master’s degree graduates had worked at some time since completing their master’s degree, with this percentage being broken down into 73.5% currently working and 18.4% who were not currently working but who had done so since completing their degree.

The average amount of time it took for an SUG graduate to find his or her first job after completing the master’s degree is 8.29 months. The graduates who found employment most quickly after completing their master’s degree are those from Engineering and Architecture (6.31 months) and Health Sciences (6.36 months).

At the time the survey was given, 73.5% of the SUG master’s degree graduates were currently working. When the situation is analyzed for graduates who were neither working nor looking for employment, the percentage of graduates performing other studies is notable (4.2%). The majority of those working are doing so in Galicia (88.1%), while only a small percentage are working in a foreign country (1.7%).

There were 44.1% of the SUG master’s degree graduates who said that their work is fairly related or very related to the master’s degree they earned. Additionally, 79.8% of the graduates believe that university education is necessary in order to perform their current job. By branches of knowledge, the highest levels of connection between the job and the master’s degree are found in the branches of Sciences and in Engineering and Architecture, where almost half of the graduates rated this relationship as fairly related or very related.

Overall, the master’s degree graduates from the SUG are satisfied with the university studies they completed, and almost 3/4 of these graduates say that they would enroll in their master’s degree program again.

The sample of students surveyed for this report included 1,526 master’s degree graduates from the 2010-2011 academic year, taken from a population of 2,099, which represents 72.70% of the total population. The overall sampling error obtained was +/-1.23% with a 95% confidence level.

On 19 May, the Quality Agencies and the Defence University Centres (CUD in Spanish) met at the headquarters of the CUD, in the Military Academy of Zaragoza. The meeting was attended by the directors of the agencies involved in the evaluation of these centres and technical staff of those who exchanged information, experiences and results in the various evaluation and accreditation with the CUD directors and staff of the General Military Academy and the Ministry of Defence.

The aim was an exchange of views among participants on the evaluation system and the results of accreditation, as some of these centres have recently received an accreditation certificate, with the aim of improving procedures and results in search of improved university quality.

The director of the ACSUG held a seminar with members of the Aragonese agency, which was also attended by the director general of universities of the Community of Aragón and the director of the Iberus International Excellence Campus. In this meeting, the ACSUG Director explained the method used for international accreditation of universities, especially in Latin America, since the time of the signing of a general agreement, through the development of appropriate guidelines and conducting site visits until the final certification of accreditation of the relevant titles.

ACSUG continues with the promotion of its international activities, in this case in Iberian America, where ACSUG have already been carrying out evaluation processes in some universities, especially in Peru and México.

On this occasion, the ACSUG Director visited the University Anáhuac in Xalapa (México). During the visit, the two institutions signed an agreement, setting the conditions of the procedure for which ACSUG is going to assess 4 degrees of this university. The ACSUG Director participated also in a conference, with a presentation about “The Quality in the University System in Spain and in Europe” and he taught some seminars directed to the teaching staff of the degrees.

On Thursday, 25 February 2016, new DOCENTIA programme documentation was presented at the ACSUG to the vice-Chancellors responsible for the DOCENTIA programme at the three Galician universities and the quality units, which is in force from 2015 to 2016 and replaced the documents and guidelines associated with the DOCENTIA programme since its inception.

In that meeting, the attendees were also informed on the current situation of DOCENTIA on the national level and the challenges of the program in the future.

See document

This new documentation specifies the approach to the assessment of the teaching activity in the various stages of the process: the verification of the design, implementation, monitoring, and certification of teaching activity assessment models of the universities.