eserp’s mission is to provide high-quality, relevant higher education that is innovative, makes a clear contribution and serves society, with the interests of the student always taking priority. The institution serves modern society by offering education of genuine quality and substance. This education is based on the continuous updating of its teaching through research and the development of theoretical and empirical analysis of the current business environment.
eserp’s plural approach is aligned with the ethical and moral values that have defined it since its beginnings and that remain an essential and enduring part of its identity, where the spirit of self-improvement, work and dedication it promotes is an indispensable foundation for student development.
As an affiliated centre of the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), eserp currently offers several official bachelor's degrees in Barcelona. eserp’s quality policy, as an affiliated centre of UVic-UCC, implements and adapts this university’s Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) model.
For its practical implementation, UVic-UCC has an Internal Quality Assurance System on which it bases the continuous improvement of its processes, through improvement plans and the analysis of stakeholder satisfaction across the activities it delivers.
The UVic-UCC quality system, which eserp implements and adapts, is organised around the definition of strategic, core and support processes in line with the continuous improvement cycle, which describes the basic stages of the virtuous circle for achieving total quality: planning, doing, evaluating, improving and accountability. For this reason, UVic-UCC, with the collaboration of eserp as an affiliated centre, continuously evaluates, redesigns and implements the mechanisms and instruments of the Internal Quality Assurance System in accordance with this policy, gradually embedding this understanding of quality at every level of the institution and across all its activities.
eserp is organised in a way that enables the proper development and fulfilment of its quality assurance objectives.
The centre’s senior management team:
In general, the centre’s senior management team assumes the responsibilities set out in the different documents of the quality assurance system and, in particular:
As evidence of its commitment to quality management, eserp’s senior management team develops and implements the quality assurance systems at the centre in accordance with the guidelines proposed by the University, as well as their continuous improvement. Consequently, all people at eserp whose activities are related to the processes indicated are involved. In conclusion, the senior management team promotes diligent and careful action across the whole community to prevent any deterioration in the quality of the services provided.
For all these reasons, eserp’s senior management team:
The quality coordinator:
The quality coordinator is the person delegated by the senior management team to eserp’s quality committee. Their main mission is to advise the senior management team on the design, implementation, maintenance and improvement of the quality assurance system.
The quality coordinator is assigned the following functions:
eserp’s quality committee:
The committee is the body responsible for quality processes relating to the centre’s qualifications. It oversees quality in the planning and implementation of the verification, monitoring, modification and accreditation processes for the official bachelor's and master's degrees taught at the centre, as well as the processes of the Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS).
The committee is made up of:
The committee has the following functions:
External regulations:
Internal regulations:
Students:
Any person with a current enrolment at the centre on an official programme, whether studying online or on campus and regardless of their route of entry.
Teaching and research staff:
The centre’s teaching and research staff.
Administrative and support staff:
The centre’s administrative and support staff.
Graduates:
Any person who has graduated from the centre, regardless of how long ago they obtained their qualification.
Public administration:
An organisation responsible for overseeing resources and directing human activity in the public interest.
Prospective students:
Any person interested in enrolling on an official programme at the centre.
Researchers:
Staff engaged partially or exclusively in the centre’s research activity.
Employers:
Companies and institutions that employ graduates from the centre.
Wider community:
The network of entities, companies and organisations closely linked to the centre.
Work placement partner organisations:
Companies and institutions that offer work placement opportunities (curricular or extracurricular), as well as final-year project opportunities, to the centre’s students.
The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the changes introduced within the legal framework establish that universities must ensure, through their actions, compliance with the objectives associated with the qualifications they deliver, while also pursuing their continuous improvement. In this context, eserp, as an affiliated centre of UVic-UCC, has considered it necessary to implement and adapt this University’s Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) for its bachelor's and master's degrees, with the aim of enhancing the quality and continuous improvement of the programmes and services it offers.
In this regard, the Internal Quality Assurance System addresses two basic questions:
The principle underpinning the objectives to be achieved by the Internal Quality Assurance System is to provide students and society with assurance that the bachelor's and master's programmes delivered by eserp, as an affiliated centre of UVic-UCC, are of high quality. Consequently, the quality assurance system has established the following specific objectives:
The Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) has been designed to assure the quality of all bachelor's and master's degrees delivered at eserp, as an affiliated centre of UVic-UCC, and to address all dimensions of teaching quality. In this regard, the Internal Quality Assurance System is complemented by eserp’s research quality model, as well as by the institution’s quality model for management and services.
In defining the mechanisms for assuring teaching quality, the system covers the following areas:
In relation to the design of the academic offer:
In relation to programme delivery and other student-focused actions:
In relation to teaching and research staff and administrative and support staff:
In relation to services and physical resources:
In relation to learning outcomes:
In relation to public information:
UVic-UCC has had an Internal Quality Assurance System in place since 2010, certified by AQU Catalunya under the AUDIT programme.
All UVic-UCC centres adopt a common Internal Quality Assurance System model, which includes cross-cutting processes that depend directly on the University’s central services and are common and general to all UVic-UCC centres, together with other management processes specific to each foundation or affiliated centre.
In this regard, eserp has adopted the UVic-UCC-wide cross-cutting processes and, in the 2022–2023 academic year, began work on migrating the centre’s processes to the new version of the system, which is expected to be approved by eserp’s quality committee in the 2023–2024 academic year.
Since the implementation of the currently verified bachelor's degrees, eserp has been developing its own tutorial action plan for the centre, which has now been renamed the guidance and tutorial action plan (POAT), approved by the General Management on 9 January 2023.
This new plan is based on the POAT of the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia, which makes it possible to respond more effectively to students’ needs across different modes of study, address a wider range of needs and their implications, and also enables the institution as a whole to work in a more coordinated way to promote improvements in learning and training conditions, as well as in the identification, support and/or referral of situations that may negatively affect students’ educational and personal or professional development processes.
Eserp’s guidance and tutorial action is structured at two different levels. First, priority is given to a tutorial model integrated into teaching, and secondly, beyond what is offered within teaching activity, a set of specific actions is developed to provide comprehensive support for the student from the stages prior to entry to their studies, throughout their learning journey, and finally in relation to the link they maintain with the institution once they complete their bachelor's or master's degree.
This guidance and tutorial support includes student support in three specific areas: academic, personal and social, and, thirdly, employment or professional support.
For more information, you can download the full POAT at the following link.
Objective:
The aim of this service is to provide psychological support to students who, throughout their learning journey at eserp, require specific guidance and follow-up to promote their wellbeing and appropriate academic performance.
Personalised support is offered, based on an individual assessment of the factors affecting adaptation to university life and/or the achievement of expected learning outcomes, in order to identify the support needs required by the student and define a support plan.
Scope of support:
Who it is for:
This service is intended for eserp students who require guidance and support to develop their learning processes appropriately.
It is also aimed at eserp academic coordinators, tutors and teaching staff who require advice on supporting students with particular learning needs.
Functions:
Procedure for evaluating and improving the quality of teaching:
After defining, designing, implementing and managing the curriculum, programme delivery proceeds in line with the agreed plans and arrangements. At the end of this activity (once per term), teaching staff carry out the academic assessment of students using the planned and scheduled assessment instruments. Subsequently, the centre’s senior management team, with the support of eserp’s quality committee, analyses the sub-process of programme delivery. To do so, it takes into account students’ academic results and their level of satisfaction with the teaching received, as well as any suggestions, complaints and similar feedback received through the appropriate channels. This information forms the basis for monitoring, measuring and improving the sub-process in question.
On a termly basis, the centre’s senior management team drives the monitoring, measurement and improvement phase of the programme delivery sub-process. To do so, it considers the incidents reported, the results of student satisfaction evaluation surveys and strategic indicators such as:
Returning to the student satisfaction evaluation surveys, these are carried out for all teaching staff, modules, courses and qualifications, on a termly basis. Their results are analysed by eserp’s senior management team.
As a result of this analysis, the senior management team, with the participation of the quality committee, drafts a monitoring report with the proposals to be applied to improve the process. This report is submitted to eserp’s quality committee for approval and validation, in order to proceed with the implementation of the proposals it contains.
For dissemination purposes, the centre’s senior management team is responsible for ensuring the proper communication, through the appropriate channels, of the data generated as a result of its implementation between the stakeholder groups and those responsible involved in the process.
The periodic review and improvement of the centre’s qualifications begins when modification of the existing curricula becomes essential in order to ensure their ongoing adaptation to the needs of society and students.
For this reason, each year the centre’s senior management team receives relevant suggestions, concerns, complaints and proposals from the stakeholder groups involved in academic activities. After selecting this information, it forwards it to eserp’s quality committee, which is responsible for analysing and evaluating it, as well as for monitoring the curriculum with the aim of drafting, annually (at the end of the academic year), an overall report for the centre’s senior management team and the University’s responsible bodies, setting out the results and relevant recommendations. Based on the analysis of the overall report, the centre’s senior management team prepares an improvement plan to be implemented at the start of the academic year.
Once the improvement plan has been approved, the centre’s senior management team submits it to the University quality committee for approval and, once approved, proceeds to disseminate it to the stakeholder groups involved for implementation.
Each year, eserp’s quality committee undertakes the monitoring of this process. To do so, it reviews the implementation, acceptance and effectiveness of the improvements set out in the approved improvement plan. Finally, it includes the results obtained, its observations and proposals in the new overall report so that the centre’s senior management team can take them into account when preparing the new improvement plan.
For the dissemination of this process, the centre’s senior management team, together with eserp’s quality committee, is responsible for ensuring the proper communication, through the appropriate channels, of information relating to the qualifications improvement plan, its approval, implementation and review for improvement among the stakeholder groups involved.
Procedure for evaluating and improving the quality of teaching staff:
eserp has a procedure through which the quality of teaching staff is evaluated and improved. This procedure applies to all official qualifications offered by eserp.
It is carried out on a termly basis through meetings held by the centre’s senior management team with all teaching and research staff involved in delivering teaching on the programmes. In these meetings, all actions undertaken by eserp teaching staff to improve teaching quality are analysed. The results serve as evidence for the improvement of teaching activity and the possible promotion of teaching and research staff.
The monitoring, measurement and improvement of this procedure are carried out through eserp’s quality committee, which includes in its annual report a summary of the teaching evaluation processes, highlighting any possible improvements to be applied. Where appropriate, the centre’s senior management team will pass these suggestions on to eserp’s General Management for subsequent amendment.
Procedure to ensure the quality of external work placements:
This procedure is relevant for those bachelor's and master's degrees that include the completion and monitoring of external professional work placements by students, or that require students to complete final-year projects based on external professional work placements.
After defining, designing, offering, promoting and managing any of the external work placement programmes, a tutor from the teaching staff is assigned to the student for their placement. Likewise, a professional supervisor from the company or host institution is also assigned. The tutor from the teaching staff and the professional supervisor design the placement work plan according to the objectives and specific competencies required by the student’s training needs. They also provide the student with the necessary documentation containing general guidance and the general and specific information required for the successful completion of the placement. During the placement period, and in accordance with the criteria established by the centre, the tutor from the teaching staff carries out academic monitoring, ensures that the placement is making the best possible contribution to the student’s development, and guides the student to achieve the best possible outcomes (for this purpose, any relevant aspect arising during the placement is recorded in a monitoring report). The professional supervisor from the company or host institution also monitors the student and records observations and evaluations in a report. At the end of the placement period, the student is assessed in accordance with the centre’s requirements, always taking into account the monitoring reports from both the tutor from the teaching staff and the professional supervisor. Likewise, the centre’s registry office proceeds with the recognition of the placement as credits.
Finally, the monitoring, measurement and amendment of the external work placement programme are carried out when the centre’s external work placement coordinator analyses the external work placement process to verify that it meets the objectives set and to amend, correct, improve or remove any anomalies detected. The external work placement coordinator bases this analysis on indicators such as:
Once the strengths and weaknesses in the process have been identified, the external work placement coordinator consults the agents involved (tutors from the teaching staff, professional supervisors and participating students) and eserp’s quality committee in order to prepare the corresponding improvement proposals. These proposals are submitted to the centre’s senior management team for approval. Subsequently, the approved proposals are implemented under the monitoring of eserp’s quality committee. The external work placement coordinator incorporates the approved amendments into the documentation governing the centre’s external work placements.
The external work placement coordinator is responsible for managing and channelling the information generated during the process so that it reaches the appropriate parties. In this way, they ensure that host organisations are informed of the observations and incidents that occurred in order to contribute to improvement in future similar experiences. They also keep the relevant agents within the centre informed of the suggestions, complaints and recommendations received from host companies or institutions so that these can be addressed and/or resolved without delay.
Procedure to ensure the quality of mobility programmes:
This procedure begins at the start of the academic year, when the centre’s senior management team sets the objectives to be achieved in the area of mobility and appoints an international relations coordinator.
After designing and managing the process for mobility programmes, the centre puts it into operation. At this stage, and while at the host institution, students maintain regular contact with the international relations coordinator through the appropriate channels for the management, channelling and resolution of any incidents or queries (academic or otherwise) arising during their stay.
At the end of the stay at the host institution, students must meet with the international relations coordinator and provide a report on the activity carried out, together with a document signed by those responsible for the credits enrolled on at the host institution, certifying attendance, achievement and mark. In turn, the international relations coordinator provides students with a survey to evaluate their satisfaction with the mobility activity undertaken and thus obtain data for the monitoring, measurement and improvement of the process. Finally, subject to approval by the centre’s senior management team, the marks obtained during the stay at the host institution are formally recognised.
To formalise the monitoring, measurement and improvement of this process, the international relations coordinator initiates the monitoring, measurement and improvement of the student mobility management process. For this purpose, they prepare a report based on the analysis of various qualitative and quantitative indicators, including:
Based on the analysis of the available indicators, as well as any complaints, recommendations or suggestions received and the initial objectives set for the management of student mobility, the international relations coordinator prepares a proposal for possible improvements for future academic years. These proposals, subject to prior approval by eserp’s quality committee and the centre’s senior management team, are circulated through the appropriate channels among the agents involved for prompt implementation.
The international relations coordinator is responsible for disseminating among the relevant stakeholder groups the data generated during the development of the procedure.
This procedure is intended for university graduates belonging to cohorts that completed their studies one, three or five years before the current academic year.
The procedure begins with the definition of the indicators used to assess graduate employability and satisfaction with the education received. In line with the guidance of the UVic-UCC Quality Area, and with the centre’s approval, the final questionnaire is prepared. This questionnaire is reviewed periodically.
The sample targeted by the graduate employment outcomes study is also defined in relation to the current year. This sample is determined by those cohorts that completed their studies one, three or five years earlier.
From a technical perspective, the Internet and telemarketing will be used to complete the data and to try to guarantee a 95% reliability level as far as possible:
For monitoring, measurement and improvement proposals, the careers department will be responsible for coordinating the implementation of the studies and compliance with the plan established each year.
The information systems department will be responsible for the survey, as well as for collecting, compiling and archiving the reports containing the questionnaire results.
A copy of the results and the report will be sent to the person responsible at the centre so that they can process, cross-reference and use the information as they consider appropriate.
The following indicators will be collected to measure the results of the procedure:
Finally, the careers department will prepare a report on the graduate employment outcomes study, which it will circulate among interested parties through the channels determined.
Procedure for analysing stakeholder satisfaction:
The Vice-Rectorate for Academic Organisation of UVic-UCC, in line with the provisions of the Programme Contract, defines which common indicators must be taken into account when analysing the outcomes of the applicable processes and the target values to be achieved where possible. Likewise, it defines the instruments available for collecting and measuring indicators, as well as who should be responsible for their analysis. It then informs the UVic-UCC ICT Area, which is responsible for programming the necessary measurement instruments, and the centre’s senior management team, which proposes the addition of any specific indicators it considers appropriate. The centre’s senior management team submits the proposed indicators to be collected and the collection and analysis mechanisms/instruments to eserp’s General Management for approval.
At this point, the indicator collection phase begins through the instruments defined. The UVic-UCC Quality Area is responsible for supplying the centre’s senior management team, also through the defined instruments, with the indicators required for the reliable evaluation of processes relating to the academic functioning of eserp, for example:
The centre’s senior management team channels the information received among the members of eserp’s quality committee for monitoring, measurement and improvement.
Each year, eserp’s quality committee is responsible for analysing the results. To do so, and under the supervision of the UVic-UCC Quality Area, it reviews and verifies the validity of the indicators and records the outcome of its analysis in an annual report. This report also includes proposals for the ongoing review and improvement of the process (for example, the review, amendment, removal or inclusion of indicators). Finally, eserp’s quality committee submits the report to the UVic-UCC Quality Area for verification and subsequently disseminates it among the relevant stakeholder groups through the appropriate channels.
The centre disseminates the results of the analysis by publishing them on its website.
Procedure for handling suggestions and complaints:
The centre’s senior management team defines and publicises the channels and procedures for handling statements, complaints and suggestions.
Using the established channels, stakeholder groups may submit complaints, suggestions, claims or statements in writing using the relevant template. The template must clearly state the subject and description of the suggestion, complaint, claim or statement, as well as a precise description that allows for an objective assessment.
The centre’s senior management team is the recipient of complaints, suggestions, claims or statements. Upon receiving any of these, the senior management team issues an acknowledgement of receipt to the author and subsequently determines whether supporting documentary evidence needs to be requested. The criteria for this determination are as follows:
When a complaint, suggestion, claim and/or statement is received, if the matter is academic, the analysis of its grounds, as well as its handling and resolution, falls to the centre’s senior management team. If the matter of the complaint, suggestion, claim and/or statement is related to the centre’s various services, the senior management team will refer it to the heads of the service or services concerned, who will be responsible for analysing its grounds and resolving it. If the matter of the complaint, suggestion, claim and/or statement falls outside the centre’s responsibilities, the senior management team will refer it to the higher bodies so that they can analyse its grounds and resolve it. In all cases, the senior management team is responsible for notifying the person concerned of the resolution of their complaint, statement, claim or suggestion.
To enable the monitoring, measurement and improvement of this process, the senior management team prepares an annual register of complaints, suggestions, claims and statements, together with their resolution. This register is analysed and evaluated by eserp’s quality committee with the aim of establishing corrective, preventive or process improvement actions. Subsequently, eserp’s quality committee includes in its annual overall report a reference to the complaints, suggestions, claims and/or statements received, analysed and resolved, and to the corrective, preventive or improvement actions derived from them. After assessing the viability of these corrective actions, the centre’s senior management team decides on their approval and initiates the appropriate actions so that they can be implemented in subsequent academic years.
Finally, the senior management team is responsible for ensuring the dissemination among the relevant stakeholder groups of any data or information related to or derived from the process in order to enable its effective development. To do so, it channels the relevant information through the appropriate tools.
*Stakeholder groups rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1 to 5.
