Teaching Quality Assurance System

Teaching quality assessment system, aimed at guaranteeing the training and competence of university teaching staff, through an assessment of their teaching activity, aimed at favouring their professional development, recognition and improvement. ANECA certifies these models through the DOCENTIA procedure.

In the current system of the Spanish university system, responsibility for the quality assurance of the training and competence of teaching staff rests with the universities and, consequently, they must develop procedures for the assessment of their performance, as well as for their training and encouragement, guaranteeing their teaching qualifications and competence. In 2007, in close coordination with the regional evaluation agencies, ANECA launched the Support Procedure for the Evaluation of the Teaching Activities of University Teaching Staff (DOCENTIA).

To support universities in designing their own mechanisms to manage the quality of teaching staff’s teaching activity and encourage their development and recognition, the DOCENTIA procedure refers to the recommendations for ensuring quality at higher education institutions, collected in the document Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (2015) which was approved by the Conference of Ministers signatories of the Bologna Declaration in May 2015. The procedure design has also taken into account the standards set by internationally recognised organisations in the field of personnel evaluation, such as The Personnel Evaluation Standards, developed by The Joint Committee of Standards for Educational Evaluation.

Currently, more than 90% of universities participate in this procedure, throughout its different phases.

Supporting documents and tools

For the evaluation of designs, the monitoring of implementation and the certification of evaluation procedures, the agencies participating in the DOCENTIA procedure have developed the following documentation and tools based on the integration and updating of previous procedure documentation, as well as the new Criteria and Guidelines for Quality Assurance 2015.

Download Documento DOCENTIA Procedure: May 21 update

Evaluation reports

The table (shows the record of bodies that have obtained a certificate of the implementation of their teaching activity evaluation model according to the DOCENTIA procedure. The certificate is valid for a renewable period of FIVE years. Even so, during the period of validity, the annual monitoring activities foreseen in the document Proceso de Certificación de los Modelos de Evaluación de la Actividad Docente del Profesorado Universitario (Certification Process of the Models for the Evaluation of the Teaching Activity of University Teaching Staff) must be passed.

Evaluation results and reports

Process general guidelines

Interested universities must fill in the application form to participate in the support programme for the evaluation of teaching staff (DOCENTIA) and send it to ANECA.

The phases of the DOCENTIA Programme are as follows:

Phase I: DESIGN The university designs the teaching activity assessment manual in accordance with the DOCENTIA model and submits it to the Agency for assessment.
Phase II: EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF DESIGNS. It aims to recognise compliance with the specifications and criteria of the DOCENTIA model.
Phase II: MONITORING OF IMPLEMENTATION. Universities whose designs have been positively assessed start implementation and send an annual report to the Agency.
Phase II: CERTIFICATION AND RENEWAL OF CERTIFICATION Once the design has been fully implemented and the monitoring phase has been successfully completed, universities will be eligible for certification of their evaluation procedures. Once the implementation has been certified, the university must submit an annual certification monitoring report.

Download Documento Application to DOCENTIA (103,02 kB)

Implications for other programmes

The certification of the implementation of the teaching activity evaluation design (DOCENTIA) will have consequences for the application of other evaluation programmes.

In the renewal of degree accreditation. During the DOCENTIA certification process, we reflect on the evaluation of the different aspects of the Teaching Quality Assessment System implemented in the centre. This assessment is reflected in the evaluation report and its content will be taken into account in the process for the renewal of the accreditation of the institution's degrees (ACREDITA ). Specifically, this can be read in the Framework Document: Evaluation for the renewal of accreditation for official University bachelor's and master's degrees (pp.51 -53). In this way, the guidelines of the ACREDITA programme that appear in ANNEX 3 of the framework document of the aforementioned programme will not be subject to evaluation by the commissions during the visit undertaken for the accreditation renewal of the centre's degrees.
In the Academia programme. As indicated in the evaluation criteria, applicants must have positive evaluations of teaching activity accredited by quality programmes such as DOCENTIA.
In the AUDIT programme. The certification of the DOCENTIA programme will exempt the institution from the evaluation of criterion 4 related to academic staff, in the certification of the implementation of the AUDIT programme.

Assessment by committees

The evaluation in the DOCENTIA programme is carried out by the Commission for the evaluation of the AUDIT and DOCENTIA programmes.

Programme Monitoring Committee

One of the functions of this commission will be to periodically review the model and the established framework procedure in order to apply the necessary improvements derived from the implementation of the model and to respond to the demands of the agents involved. It is made up of a chairperson and secretary proposed by ANECA and a representative of each of the agencies involved in the DOCENTIA Programme.

Commission for the evaluation of the Design, Monitoring and Certification of the DOCENTIA Programme models

Name	Profile
Ana Isabel Fernández Sainz (U. del País Vasco/EHU)	Chairperson
Miguel Santamaría Lancho (U. Nacional de Educación a Distancia)	Academic member
Javier Paricio Royo (U. de Zaragoza)	Academic member
Paula Carolina Lozano Duarte (U. Pública de Navarra)	Student member
Elvira Juárez Casalengua (ANECA)	Secretary

Committee for the evaluation of the AUDIT and DOCENTIA programmes

The Commission for the evaluation of the AUDIT and DOCENTIA programmes is responsible for the evaluation functions of the AUDIT and DOCENTIA programmes of ANECA.

Name	Profile
Pilar Paneque Salgado (ANECA)	Chairperson
José Luis Aznarte Mellado (ANECA)	Academic member
Javier Bará Temes (U. Politécnica de Cataluña)	Academic member
Cristina Guilarte Martín-Calero (U. de Valladolid)	Academic member
Elvira Juárez Casalengua/José Antonio Pérez de la Calle (ANECA)	Secretary

ANECA has established a procedure for queries by email: docentia@aneca.es