Duties of the Faculty of Letters Quality Commission

The main task of the Faculty Quality Commission is to work together with the quality commissions of the departments in order to verify that academic programmes, outputs, services, research activities and processes conform to the defined quality standards and specifications, to safeguard their integrity, and to establish policies and procedures to that end. In this process, known as quality assurance, ethical standards have to be applied and certain regulatory requirements met so that deviations from quality standards can be identified and corrected. Regular audits and evaluations are also essential in order to assess the effectiveness of quality management systems and to identify areas for improvement, and training programmes are organised to foster a culture of quality and continuous improvement across all units and individuals of the Faculty, beginning with the departments. In this way it becomes possible to monitor the feedback of the stakeholders who play a critical role, and to take measures to address concerns or problems relating to quality.

Within this framework, the Faculty Quality Commission directs its main focus to securing and improving the quality of teaching and research, and its foremost objective is to open the way for the accreditation of its units by ensuring that the established standards of educational quality and effectiveness are met (see the Accreditation Commission). To this end, it gives priority to the development of academic programmes and courses so as to be sure that current educational standards are met from the perspective of both internal and external stakeholders, and it keeps on its agenda the implementation and auditing of assessment and evaluation systems used to appraise learning outcomes, teaching methods and the effectiveness of academic programmes.

Aware that the development of the Faculty will come about through increased teaching effectiveness and research productivity, the Faculty Quality Commission attaches importance to supporting the professional development of academic staff and ensures the implementation of continuous improvement initiatives that support student success, including resources for academic and personal development. In this sense, by informing all the commissions of the departments — above all their quality commissions — on the necessary matters and by collecting and following up what has been done, the Commission supports the cooperation of academic programmes with external stakeholders such as employers, professional bodies and community partners, with social priorities also in view; and by ensuring that potential risks to quality are identified and that measures are implemented to reduce them, it plays an active part in protecting the reputation and integrity of the Faculty and in securing the success and satisfaction of students, academic staff and other stakeholders.