Teaching quality | modern foreign languages and civilisations

Quality Assurance is an indispensable process that involves all those who work in the University in which each individual's progress benefits the entire University and stimulates the healthy confrontation to which it is necessary to strive in order to make the social role played by the University 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 organisation 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-questionario-di-valutazione-della-didattica-line

Management Control Unit

Organisation and Responsibility for Degree course Quality Assurance

Organs:
- Course Council (DC)
- Review Group (RG)
- Quality Assurance Manager (QAM)
- Steering Committee (SC)

Description of tasks and responsibilities:

For the purposes of Quality Assurance, each CSO is required to
- apply, as far as it is concerned, the policies and general guidelines for quality established by the governing bodies;
- carry out self-assessment and review of its training and the management of the degree course according to the analysis reported in the annual report of the CPDS and the data provided by ANVUR, the Evaluation Committee and the Organisational Unit (O.U.) Management Control, possibly comparing itself with similar DC;
- Promoting continuous improvement and evaluating its effectiveness;
- Implementing the evaluation of teaching, according to what has been set up at the University level.

The DC, through its President, is also responsible for the information reported in the ANVUR documents (SAS-DC, Annual Monitoring Form, Cyclic Review Report). As of 2020, the figure of the Deputy President will be added.
Each course establishes a Review Group (RG), composed of figures from within the degree course itself, which can contribute to the evaluation of the course from different points of view (professors, technical-administrative staff, students). The RG is normally composed of the President of the degree course, the person in charge for the quality of DC (QAM), a student representative and a Course Quality Manager (CQM) from the Department. The RG has the task of guiding the DC towards the goal of continuous improvement of its results. The RG manages the process of self-evaluation, i.e. the process by which the DC monitors its own performance and assesses its own results, also in accordance with the guidelines established by ANVUR.

In the course of the self-assessment process, the RG examines everything that can contribute to the analysis of the results of the DC and, in particular:
- the annual report provided by the reference Teachers-Students Joint Committee;
- the report from the Evaluation Committee;
- the progress ot the student careers;
- the availability of the context services (tutoring, internationalisation, guidance, internships etc,);
- the consultation with the socio-economic system of reference (including the Steering Committee, sector studies, specific meetings with the social partners);
- the availability of resources (human and infrastructural);
- student opinion on teaching, the organisation of the degree course and the training pathway;
- any other information provided by the QAM, the Education Manager and the Coordinator/Manager for the Quality Assurance Office.

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 DC and forwarded to the PQA and the University Evaluation Committee.

The Quality Assurance Manager (QAM) has the function of monitoring and verifying the correct implementation of the improvement actions approved by the Course Council. The QAM is identified from among the Professors of the Degree course.

In addition, the QA bodies of the Degree course, for the purposes of teaching organisation and QA, interact with the QA bodies of the Department (https://dusic.unipr.it/it/dipartimento/qualita-di-dipartimento).

Work scheduling and implementation deadlines for initiatives

The planning of the QA process at university level includes the following activities:

- compilation of the annual report of the Joint Teachers-Students Committee;
- compilation of the annual report of the Evaluation Committee;
- redefinition of the policy, organisation and responsibilities for the QA of the Boards of Studies, the scheduling of work and the deadlines for the implementation of initiatives at the University level.

The planning of the QA process at the degree course level includes the following activities and deadlines:
- survey of training demand (involvement of stakeholders): every year by 31 December (see framework A1.b);
- definition/updating of the training objectives: every year by 31 January;
- redesigning of the course catalogue: every year, if necessary, within the ministerial deadlines for the modification of the organisational frameworks;
- harmonisation of the course unit programmes: every year by 31 July;
- updating of the course units sheets (Syllabus) for the following academic year: every year, normally and unless extended, by 30 June;
- evaluation, by the QAM, of the students' questionnaires: every year by 31 October;
- compilation of the SAS-degree course: every year according to ministerial deadlines, normally between the end of May and the beginning of June;
- compilation of the Annual Monitoring Form: every year by 31 October;
- meetings of the Review Group, aimed at monitoring actions and proposing improvement initiatives, at least three times a year:

1. one in January - analysis of the survey on the demand for training and possible redesigning of the course catalogue, analysis of the annual report of the Evaluation Committee, monitoring of drop-outs and proposals for improvement (didactic tutoring);
2. one in March/April - analysis of the report of the Joint Teachers-Students Committee, preparation of the degree course SAS, harmonisation of programmes, updating of teaching schedules, preparation of the Prospectus;
3. one in September/October.