Quality Assessment and Promotion Office

New Page 2

| Presentation

ISCE Douro, since its creation in April 2015, has assumed the principle that the promotion and assessment of quality constitute a fundamental vector for the functioning, growth and development of the institution, complying with the stipulations in the Legal Regime of Educational Institutions Higher Education (RJIES) and in Law no. 38/2007, of August 16, which approved the Legal Regime for Assessment of Higher Education (RJAES) and which, in its article no. 5, stipulates the objectives of quality assessment: a) Provide improvements in the quality of higher education institutions; b) The provision of substantiated information to society on the performance of higher education institutions; and c) The development of an internal institutional culture of quality assurance.

Although, under this legislation, quality assessment is mandatory and periodic, there remains an institutional meta-awareness that goes beyond this need to comply with what is legally established, with this principle also enshrined in statute. For its pursuit, ISCE Douro defined an institutional strategy for quality assessment and promotion, which will be implemented, reflected and adjusted to the extent of institutional growth and evolution, in accordance with a reference framework for quality assessment at national level , monitored by A3ES, and international.

To achieve the defined objectives, it is necessary:

Raise awareness among the entire community (students; teachers/researchers; non-teaching staff; external partners) to the importance of a culture of quality assessment, built from everyone's consultation and contributions.
Establish an organizational and functional framework with representatives from all stakeholders involved in its structure, who actively intervene not only at the level of decision-making, but above all in moments of contextualized analysis of the results obtained and in consensualizing the improvements to be introduced in the process management.
Define a reference framework with a set of indicators that allow for partial monitoring and cyclical and systematic evaluation of institutional processes in the dimensions of i) teaching and learning; ii) investigation; iii) community extension activities, interinstitutional relations and internationalization.

The quality policy implies the promotion of an organizational culture that encourages the involvement of the entire academic community in processes related to quality and its guarantee, with a view to internalizing evaluation as a natural element of institutional activity, from the double perspective of continuous improvement of processes and critical reflection on the degree of fulfillment of ISCE Douro's mission and the consequent duty of information and transparency.

| Mission

Ensure, in conjunction with institutional self-government bodies, the implementation of actions aimed at implementing and developing the quality evaluation and promotion system, supported by an open and democratic conception shared by students, teachers, non-teaching staff and institutional partners, in the respect for national and international reference evaluation requirements for the sector.

| Goals

Promote a culture of institutional evaluation;
Integrate quality parameters and reference assessment for HEIs;
Organize and develop the quality assessment and promotion system;
Contribute to the continuous improvement of quality, ensuring the coordination of those involved in the processes;
Permanently evaluate models, conditions and performances of different institutional agents, particularly in the pedagogical, scientific and investigative, organizational and community outreach, internationalization and institutional quality assessment domains;
Control the execution of improvement measures and their degree of implementation.