The quality management system (QMS) 4EU+QUALITY aims to assure and continuously enhance the quality of the Alliance’s educational activities to offer the best possible conditions to the students in the 4EU+ European University Alliance.
4EU+QUALITY:
builds on mutual trust between the member universities and on institutional compliance,
focuses on quality assurance as well as continuous quality improvement,
enables evidence-based decision-making for the educational activities within the Alliance, based on clearly defined quality standards,
ensures that the qualifications delivered to the students are of the highest standard and are internationally comparable and transferable,
provides a fully documented collection of procedures on how to assure and enhance quality of 4EU+ educational activities.
For a comprehensive QMS on educational activities, a periodic evaluation and monitoring of measures, activities, and implementations are necessary. Thus, with the QMS 4EU+QUALITY, a formal and systematic approach has been designed in order to evaluate and continuously improve not only the quality of educational activities on the Alliance level but also the effectiveness of the processes of the QMS itself. This is done via a combination of internal auditing and external reviewing, which includes all educational activities on the Alliance level.
In order to assure and continuously improve the quality of 4EU+ educational activities, including joint programmes and the QMS itself, the Alliance follows the reliable plan-do-check-act (PDCA) approach. On a general level, the PDCA in 4EU+QUALITY can be summarized as follows:
PLAN: The Management Committee (MC) as the responsible governance body for quality management defines the vision, strategy, and goals of the Alliance. The MC also defines the respective QMS, including quality criteria, evaluation instruments, procedures, and responsibilities. The MC communicates all relevant issues and decisions into the breadth and depth of the Alliance and the member universities via the Secretary General who is supported by an Alliance’s Referee for Quality Management.
DO: The Alliance as a whole and the single universities take actions in line with the Alliance’s vision, strategy, and goals (e.g., the creation of new educational activities, the creation of joint programmes). These actions go hand in hand with the assessment of respective data and reports that allow the subsequent evaluation and monitoring of the effects and the success of actions taken.
CHECK: There are several checking mechanisms within the 4EU+QUALITY system that allow evaluating and monitoring the effects of actions taken. These mechanisms enable the Alliance to assess the success of actions taken and the extent to which the Alliance’s goals are achieved – in line with the overall vision and strategy of the Alliance. The mechanisms consist of:
initial certification of educational activities as 4EU+ educational activities
internal auditing of 4EU+ educational activities by the Academic Council (AC) and the MC
external reviewing of the QMS and its effects on educational quality by the External Reviewing Board
advancement of the QMS itself
ACT: Based on written recommendations by the respective bodies, the Alliance as a whole and the single universities take actions and adjust measures in order to further enhance the quality of educational activities within 4EU+ and the QMS itself. This again is the basis for the refinement and renewal of the vision, the strategy, and the goals of the Alliance.
In addition to these procedures, the Alliance pursues a clear no-conflict-of-interest policy.
Alliance Referee for Quality Management:
Swantje Schirmer, swantje.schirmer@heiquality.uni-heidelberg.de
Additional information on 4EU+QUALITY is available in this document.