External Accreditation

Organic Law 4/2007, dated 12 April, which amended Organic Law 6/2001, 21 December, on Universities (Spanish Universities Act), established a new structure for university degree programmes in Spain in line with the aims set for building the European Higher Education Area.

Royal Decree 1393/2007, dated 29 October, and Royal Decree 861/2010 which amended the previous have led autonomy to the universities to design new degree programmes at Bachelor, Master and Doctorate levels. These Royal Decrees also establish three stages in the introduction of official university degree: 

Ex-ante accreditation:

Once a university has decided to offer a degree before admitting students, the university must present a degree project for verification by the Universities Council which requests an assessment report from the Quality Assurance Agency in charge. (ANECA).

The project must also be authorized by the Regional Authorities. This is the project of the Grado en Ingeniería de Organización Industrial (management engineering), as it was accredited by ANECA (National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation of Spain) (Only Spanish version available)

Once this process has concluded, the degrees are included in the Register of Universities, Centres and Degrees (RUCT), which contains information concerning the Spanish University System and the degree is considered as Accredited.

Follow-up procedure:

ANECA (and other regional agencies) are developing the so-called follow-up procedures where to check, by non-intrusive means, that the institution is implementing the study programme according to the approved design. This procedure takes place, at least, once a year (ANECA or the regional Quality Assurance Agencies with such a competence).

Ex-post accreditation:

ANECA is currently creating the ACREDITA program which will check that the degree has been carried out according with the initial project. This review will include a site visit to the institution. It will take place within 6 years after de first implementation of the studies.

Internal Quality Assurance

Universidad de Zaragoza has additionally established an Internal System for Quality Assurance, which has also been implemented in our Centre. A set of rules and procedures guaranties periodical revision and improvement of the studies. These decisions are based in a number of data, indicators and opinions of every person implied in the degree. A person is delegated by the dean to be in charge of the quality assurance of the degree in the CUD.