Internal Quality Assurance System

The IQAS is a tool that enables the URV's faculties or schools to define their quality policies and strategies, to establish quality assurance activities, to define who is affected by and who is responsible for quality assurance and to stipulate which material and human resources are needed to manage and guarantee quality.

This system complies with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG)

The IQAS promotes a culture of quality and incorporates strategies for continuous improvement

• Guarantees the quality of education and teaching
• Meets the needs and expectations of all stakeholders (teaching and research staff, administrative staff, students, graduates and employers)
• Ensures transparency and accountability to society

Additional information can be found in the IQAS framework document (in Catalan).

The URV's IQAS is decentralized: each faculty and school adapts the overarching IQAS framework of the URV in order to implement its own system based on its own needs.

The IQAS framework is an agreement between the parties involved that defines the basic elements that the IQAS must have. Its objective is to:

• Ensure internal institutional consistency
• Promote and share learning between faculties and schools
• Establish a common basic framework that has room for personal adaptation

The Quality of Lifelong Learning Programmes is guaranteed by the IQAS of the Lifelong Learning Centre (certified in accordance with the UNE-EN ISO 9001:2015 and evaluated by AQU Catalunya as part of the AUDIT programme). Click here for more information

The IQASs implemented at the URV's faculties and schools follow a processes-based approach, in accordance with the URV's process management model, and they include and regulate the life cycle of degrees and teaching activity.

Additional information about the URV's process management model can be found by clicking on the following link.

The IQAS process map shows how the processes are structured and connected.

Three types of processes can be distinguished:

Faculty/school processes

These are the property of the faculty or school and they describe the activities carried out. They are classified as:

• Strategic processes: these are used to define policies and guidelines and to analyse needs
• Key processes: these directly affect teaching activity
• Support processes: these provide all the resources and/or materials needed

Trasnversal processes

Transversal processes cover the entire University. The faculty/school follows these processes because it needs them in order to carry out its activities.

The owner of these processes is the URV, which is responsible for defining, reviewing, improving and making them available to the faculties/schools and other users.

Operational processes

These processes describe in greater detail how activities covered by the transversal processes are to be carried out. They are essential for ensuring the consistency and efficiency of the IQAS. They are the property of the URV's units and services.

Over the years, the URV has acquired extensive experience in guaranteeing the quality of its teaching by reviewing and progressively improving its IQAS.

IQAS 2.0 represents a significant evolution. It is a more mature model aligned with institutional strategy and is aimed at strengthening the governance of the URV's faculties/schools.

The URV's Social Council awarded the review project that resulted in IQAS 2.0 the 2025 Xavier López Vilar Award for the quality and continuous improvement of the administrative and technical management of the URV's administrative and services staff.

Main changes:

▶ Clear definition of responsibilities and participation of stakeholders

The role of the different stakeholders involved in the processes is specified, at all functional levels, to guarantee efficient and shared governance.

▶ Process map redesign

The new map allows for better organization and understanding of the faculty/school's processes, providing a picture of an overall operation oriented towards stakeholder satisfaction with organizational processes that are complemented by transversal ones.

▶ Review and update of processes

The processes of the faculties/schools have been reviewed to ensure their compliance with the new legal requirements, with the guidelines for methodological application and with the URV's internal regulations.

▶ Redefining transversal processes

There has been a move away from an operational to a more strategic vision that involves the identification of new processes to meet current needs.

The following is a list of transversal processes defined within the IQAS 2.0 framework 

• PR-URV-001 Strategies for Ensuring Teaching Staff Quality
• PR-URV-002 Strategies for Ensuring the Quality of Technical, Management, and Administrative & Service Staff
• PR-URV-003 Design and Creation of the URV Teaching Model
• PR-URV-004 Design and Creation of Strategies for the Internationalisation 
• PR-URV-005 Creation of Mechanisms to Review the Relevance of the Official Degrees on offer
• PR-URV-006 Strategies for Ensuring the Quality of Facilities and Infrastructures
• PR-URV-007 Strategies for Ensuring the Quality of Technological Infrastructure
• PR-URV-008 Creation, Review and Improvement of Transversal Processes
• PR-URV-009 Creation of Mechanisms to Regulate Student Admission, Recognition, and Certification
• PR-URV-010 Creation of Mechanisms for Student Support and Guidance
• PR-URV-011 Creation of Mechanisms to Ensure the Student Wellbeing
• PR-URV-012 Creation of Mechanisms for Gathering Information on Stakeholder Satisfaction
• PR-URV-013 Strategies for Ensuring the Quality of Data and the Information System (In process)
• PR-URV-014 Design and Creation of Research and Knowledge Transfer Policy (Applicable to the Doctoral School's IQAS)