Internal quality assurance systems for institutions

The Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) which sets out quality assurance requirements and procedures in the institution or any of its centres, especially in the scopes of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and social involvement spheres. The IQAS implementation certificate is a requirement for the institutional accreditation of university centres. ANECA certifies IQAS through the AUDIT procedure, which enables Spanish universities across all Autonomous Regions to subsequently obtain their corresponding institutional accreditation.

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The EHEA and the relevant Spanish regulations establish that universities are required to have implemented Internal Quality Assurance Systems (IQASs) and policies, which must be formally established and publicly available. Therefore, in 2007, ANECA developed the AUDIT procedure in order to foster and promote the development and implementation of internal quality assurance systems in Spanish universities and to offer a procedure that leads to the recognition and certification of such systems.

Subsequently, the AUDIT International procedure  was extended in response to the demand from various international organisations to have the quality assurance systems of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in third-party countries and/or regions certified as well, as this certification has been proven useful to improve the quality of degrees and, therefore, to ensure that the stakeholders of such HEIs are satisfied.

Supporting documents and tools

  • AUDIT Guide supporting procedure. These guidelines summarizes the main characteristics of the AUDIT International Programme, the full set of requirements of this model, as well as several instructions to make the system better understandable for Higher Education Institutions
  • Adherence request to the AUDIT procedure.  Higher Education Institutions interested in joining the Programme must complete the attached model and send it to the following e-mail address: audit@aneca.es.

Equipo del programa

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Application for certification audits of Higher Education centres. All Higher Education institutions interested in certifying the implementation of an IQAS based on the AUDIT Model in any of their centres must use one of the two established channels, according to their different purposes:

  • If the objective is to obtain for the first time, or renew the certification of the SAIC (in its design or implementation phase), independently from a process of renewal of the Institutional Accreditation, they must complete and submit the form that can be accessed via the attached link:

 

Download Documento Application for centre certification audit
  • If the objective is to renew the SAIC certification within the framework of a coupled process of renewal of Institutional Accreditation (SAIC + Official Degrees), they must complete and submit the form which can be accessed via the attached link:

Download Documento Template for the presentation of the Self-evaluation Report for the Renewal of Institutional Accreditation

Regulations governing the AUDIT Procedure

  • Royal Decree 640/2021, of 27 July, on the creation, recognition and authorisation of universities and university centres, and institutional accreditation of university centres.
  • Resolution of 3 March 2022, on the General Secretariat of Universities, which establishes the guidelines for an institutional accreditation procedure for centres in public and private educational institutions, as well as the Protocol for the certification of internal quality assurance systems, and the Protocol for the assessment procedure for the accreditation renewal of university centres, as approved by the General Conference for University Policies. 
  • Agreement of the Spanish Network of University Quality Agencies (REACU) on the procedure for assessing those degrees taught across several centres within the framework of the institutional accreditation protocols of university centres.

Evaluation reports

Tables show the list of universities or centres that have obtained a certificate on the design and implantation of its Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) pursuant to the AUDIT procedure model and the reports drawn up by ANECA, after completing the corresponding assessment and/or audit proceedings and having proven that they comply adequately with the quality criteria and guidelines established in this model. 

Reports from National  Universities: 

Reports from International Universities:

Process general guidelines

The AUDIT assessment model is aligned with the criteria and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and is intended to support for those universities that aim to comply with the recommendations for internal quality assurance.

This model encompasses three clearly defined phases:

  1. Guidelines for IQAS design: the agency provides Centres with guidelines to design Internal Quality Assurance Systems for the programmes taught in such centres.
  2. IQAS design certification: in this stage, a procedure for the recognition and certification of said systems by external quality assurance agencies is deployed.
  3. Certification of implemented IQAS: after the IQAS design has been certified, the centre starts to implement this system and, subsequently, the agency certifies the IQAS that is to be implemented in this centre.

Additionally, it is highly recommended that the involved Higher Education Institutions submit a summarized report (of under 10 pages) including specific information regarding the degree of development of the procedure for obtaining accreditations, either national or international, for university degrees or masters’ degrees, or institutional accreditations, that they may teach at this time, as well as a detailed description of its quality structure, and the goals that they intend to achieve with this project. The sole purpose of this is to enable ANECA to assess the degree of institutional commitment and the starting position of the Higher Education Institution involved, for the purposes of assessing whether its profile is appropriate to successfully take part in this procedure.

When this is the case, ANECA will send to IES a model of the collaboration agreement in which the participation methods and the purposes of each phase must be clearly defined.

Once that there is a signed agreement, the Higher Education Institution is invited to start designing and obtaining certification for its Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS), as well as working on its future implementation and certification in each of the university’s centres.

Public fees  

The AUDIT procedure applies the following official fees that have been approved by the Spanish Treasury and must be complied with:  AUDIT procedure fees. 

Assessment by commissions

In order to have the Internal Quality Assurance Systems (IQASs) assessed pursuant to the AUDIT  model, ANECA includes a panel of experts formed by a Chairman, a Secretary and up to three spokespersons.

When assessing the implementation of IQAS in any of the centres submitted by the requesting university, the assessment Commission shall be formed by a team of auditing experts specialized in IQAS, and particularly in the AUDIT model. As a rule, an audit team may be formed by a head auditor, an auditor, a training auditor and/or a student, chosen among the persons having obtained an ANECA certification to carry out this task.

All persons carrying out assessing or auditing tasks undergo a previous qualification period before taking part in the procedure.
 

ANECA has established that the procedure to submit requests is to send an e-mail to the following e-mail address:  audit@aneca.es ​​​​​​