Organic Law 6/2001 of December 21, on universities (known as the LOU in Spanish), which was modified by Organic Law 4/2007 of April 12, indicates that one of the main priorities in the pursuit of excellence must be improvement in the quality of teaching and research by university professors. Along these lines, external evaluation mechanisms have been introduced in order to provide independent assessment, using objective and transparent criteria, of the teaching activities carried out by professors during the various phases and facets of their professional careers.
On one hand, there is an effort to ensure that a more objective and transparent system is used when selecting professors to be hired, which must ensure their merit and capabilities by requiring evaluation by the universities prior to their hiring under various types of contracts. Also, for professors who have already reached a stable employment situation there are incentives offered in the form of salary bonuses, based upon the performance of their teaching, research, and administrative functions, and which also require evaluation of their curriculum vitae.
In the Autonomous Community of Galicia the responsibility for performing these evaluations has been assigned to the ACSUG through the twenty-seventh additional provision of Galician Parliamentary Law 3/2002 of April 29, on the taxation regimen and administrative measures. This represents the starting point for development of the processes for evaluation of professors, which is currently taking place.
