Teaching quality

Ensuring Quality is an indispensable process that involves all those who work in the Athenaeum in which each individual's progress benefits the entire Athenaeum and stimulates the healthy confrontation to which it is necessary to strive in order to make the social role played by the Athenaeum effective and concrete.
QUALITY ASSURANCE means: defining quality policies in tune and synergy with the University's strategic directions and reliable and robust procedures through which the governing bodies can implement them; implementing activities to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in all the University's internal processes, first and foremost in the service of the quality of education and research; creating awareness in all those who work in the University so that everyone's tasks are carried out competently and promptly, the services provided are effective, and a record is kept of what has been done to monitor and measure results.
For more information on Quality Assurance, please consult this page: https://www.unipr.it/AQ

Student Opinion Survey Questionnaire (OPIS)

The student opinion survey questionnaire (OPIS) is a tool designed to detect student opinion with a view to improving teaching, quality and the organization of study courses and is an integral part of the evaluation system. For students, it is an important opportunity to make their voice heard and actively participate in the life of their course of study, as a guarantee of better Quality Assurance: this is why the University recommends that it be filled in punctually and accurately.
More information on the OPIS questionnaires can be found on the following page: https://www.unipr.it/didattica/i-corsi-di-studio/compilazione-del-quest…

Organization and responsibility for Course QA

Quality Assurance of Study Courses (CoS) is a constituent element of the management, monitoring and measurement of the dynamics governing teaching, knowledge and know-how. The design of LSCs must involve students and external stakeholders, which include all actors and organizations and institutions potentially interested in the cultural and professional profile of graduates. CoSs should be constantly updated, reflecting the most advanced knowledge in the disciplines, also with a view to the continuation of studies in subsequent cycles, ensuring interchange with the world of research and the world of work.
For the purposes of Quality Assurance, each CSD is required to
- apply, as far as it is competent, the policies and general guidelines for Quality established by the Governing Bodies; - carry out self-assessment and review activities of its own training pathway and of the management of the CoS on the basis of the analyses reported in the annual report of the CPDS and of the data provided by ANVUR, the Evaluation Board and the Organizational Unit (O.U.) Management Control, also comparing itself with similar CoS with a view to benchmarking; - promoting continuous improvement and evaluating its effectiveness; - implementing the evaluation of teaching according to what has been set up at the University level.
The CoS, through its President, is also responsible for the information reported in the ANVUR documents (SUA-CoS, Annual Monitoring Form, Cyclic Review Report).
To this end, each school establishes a Review Group (RG) composed of figures from within the school itself who are able to contribute to the evaluation of the course from various points of view (lecturers, technical-administrative staff, students). The RG normally consists of the President of the School, the School Quality Assurance Manager (QAM), a student representative and a Teaching Quality Manager from the School's Department. The RG has the task of guiding the CoS towards the goal of continuous improvement of its results. The RG manages the process of self-evaluation, i.e. the process by which the CoS monitors its own performance and assesses its own results, also in accordance with the guidelines established by ANVUR. The work of the RG takes the form of the compilation of an Annual Monitoring Form and the drafting of the Cyclical Review Report, which is discussed within the Council of the relevant CoS and forwarded to the PQA and the University Evaluation Committee.
Finally, the Quality Assurance Manager (QAM) has the function of monitoring and verifying the correct implementation of the improvement actions approved by the CoS. The QAM is identified from among the Lecturers of the CoS.
DEPARTMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE The Director and the Department Council are the governing bodies of the Department responsible for defining Quality Assurance Policies for Department Research and Teaching. A Department Quality Presidium (PQD) is set up within each department, an operational and liaison body between the department and the University Quality Presidium.
The PQD:
- it spreads the culture of Quality; - applies, as far as it is concerned, the policies and general guidelines for Quality established by the Governing Bodies of the University; - assists the Chairpersons of the CoS in the drafting of documents for the QA of the CoS (SUA-CoS, Cyclic Review Report, Annual Monitoring Form); - assists the Director in the drafting of research QA documents (SUA-RD, any programme documents of the Department); - supports the Director and the Department Council in the definition of policies and objectives for Quality and QA of research and of the third mission; - promotes continuous improvement in Research and Teaching through self-evaluation activities and evaluates the effectiveness of the actions undertaken.
In addition, the PQD, through the Department Delegate for Teaching, liaises with the Department Teaching Commission, a commission with the function of supporting the Director in carrying out his responsibilities in teaching matters, while, through the Department Delegate for Research Quality and Third Mission, it verifies the regular execution of the procedures for the drafting of the SUA-RD.
DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR According to the Statute, the Director has the function of promoting, guiding and coordinating scientific activities. It supervises research and third mission activities and oversees their evaluation. The Director is assisted by the Department Research Quality and Third Mission Delegate who is entrusted with the following tasks:
- support in the definition of the Department's research quality and third mission policies, with the identification of indicators that take into account the teaching commitment, but also the quality of research and technology transfer activities; - definition of the Department's research quality and third mission assurance procedures; - annual monitoring of research products (as defined by ANVUR in the VQR call and in the SUA-RD), both in quantitative and qualitative terms; - structured management of the Department's public engagement activities.
The Director is responsible for the information reported in the QA documents (SUA-RD and any other policy documents of the Department).
PARITETICULAR TEACHER STUDENT COMMITTEE Pursuant to the Statute and the University Teaching Rules and Regulations and the Framework Regulation for the functioning of Departments, the Joint Teaching-Student Committees (CPDS) of Departments are established, composed of a teacher and a student for each CoS belonging to the Department. The CPDS, if deemed necessary, may be subdivided into subcommittees. It is chaired by one of the tenured teachers and represents a permanent observatory on teaching activities.
The CPDS:
- it monitors the range of course catalogue and the quality of teaching, as well as the service activities provided to students by professors and researchers within the Department; - It expresses an opinion on the consistency between the ECTS credits allocated to educational activities and the specific educational objectives set; - It identifies and monitors indicators for the evaluation of results; - it formulates opinions on the activation and suppression of degree programmes; - it analyses data and information on the range of course catalogue and on the quality of teaching; - it submits proposals to the Evaluation Committee for improving the quality and effectiveness of teaching structures; - it monitors the indicators that measure the degree of achievement of teaching objectives at the level of individual structures.
By 31 December of each year, the CPDS draws up a report in accordance with the quality assurance regulations and forwards it to the Presidents of the CoS pertaining to the Department, to the Department Director, to the Coordinator of the University Quality Presidium and to the Coordinator of the University Assessment Board.

Work scheduling and implementation deadlines for initiatives

The quality assurance of the CoS consists in the implementation of the QA Model proposed and coordinated by the Quality Presidium and in the planning and implementation of corrective actions, the effectiveness of which is assessed annually through the analysis of indicator trends in the Annual Monitoring Form and, in depth, periodically in the Cyclic Review Report (CBR).
Corrective actions under the control of the Department and/or the CSD are planned according to the organizational and management modalities of the Department and/or the CoS and are coordinated and monitored by the Quality Assurance Manager (QAM).
The CoS appoints an internal review group (RG) whose activities are organised as follows:
- annually drafts the SUA-CoS for the following academic year; - annually drafts the SUA-CoS for the following academic year; - periodically verifies the status of implementation of the improvement measures proposed in the Cyclical Review Report and assesses the overall progress of students' careers, based on the data provided by ANVUR.
The overall planning of QA activities leads to daily contact with student representatives, tutors, lecturers and staff in the Academic Office and central offices. In correspondence with deadlines for documents or fulfilments (review, SUA form, beginning and end of semesters, examination and graduation sessions), activities intensify and take the form of drafting texts or collecting information.

The main actions of the CoS carried out through the activities of the PCDS, RG, QAM, Manager of Internships, Managers of Orientation, Self-Assessment Test Commission, Manager of SDP, Teaching-Evaluation Commission are:

Monitoring of students' career progress; Analysis of the results of the Self-Assessment Test and planning of remedial activities for OFAs; Identification of measures to prevent student dispersion, already in place thanks also to the new Scientific Degrees Plan; Activities related to the Scientific Degrees Plan, currently being implemented in collaboration with other SCVSA Department degree courses; Implementation of digital platforms and the degree course website; Implementation of the digital internship procedure and ESSE3 platform.

Within the SCVSA Department, the Biology and Biotechnology Steering Committee is active (in which, among others, in addition to the PCDS of Biology, a representative of the National Order of Biologists also participates) in order to assess the degree of coherence of the degree of coherence of the degree programmes of the degree course in response to the needs of the world of work and/or the continuation of university study in the LMs.

The schedule of individual activities can be found in the attached PDF. Calendar changes related to the Covid emergency are possible for the current year.