Quality assurance of pedagogical and research activities

Procedures, methods and strategies of quality assurance at UNG are defined in accordance with the national legislation (the Slovenian Higher Education Act, Criteria for the Accreditation and External Evaluation of Higher Education Institutions and Study Programmes and other regulations the of the Slovenian Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (SQAA) (http://test.nakvis.si/en-GB/Content/Details/8)), and recommended European standards and guidelines – European standards and guidelines for internal quality assurance within higher education institutions. (www.enqa.eu/pubs_esg.lasso), All procedures, methods and strategies of quality assurance at UNG are formally adopted by UNG competent bodies, and published on UNG website (UNG Statute, UNG Quality Assurance Manual, and other UNG acts).

UNG has a clearly defined mission and vision of its operations, as well as a strategy for attainment of set objectives. Quality assurance and international competitiveness in the field of pedagogical and research activities are of primary consideration or the commitment of our institution.

UNG is constantly developing its quality culture, working on the creation of quality brand, updating the procedures and strategy for the assurance of quality and its constant improvement in all its activities.
The responsibility for the monitoring, assessing and assuring of the quality at UNG is borne by the Rector, both Vice Rectors and other UNG bodies. Monitoring, assessment and assurance of quality of study programmes and other activities of UNG faculties, academies and schools is the responsibility of respective deans, senates and other faculty/school bodies within the scope of their powers. The responsibility for the assurance of quality of research work in UNG research units is borne by heads of research units in accordance with their competence. Quality assurance procedures involve all UNG employees and other stakeholders, including students.

Students are involved in the process of monitoring and quality assurance on several levels. Cooperation between UNG and students takes place through the UNG Student Council. Students have their representatives in the Governing Board and Senate of the University of Nova Gorica, as well as in senates of individual UNG faculties, academies and schools, and in the UNG Quality Assurance Committee. All UNG students are directly involved in the monitoring and assurance of quality of pedagogical process through student surveys.

The UNG Quality Assurance Committee is responsible, at UNG level, for the implementation of activities related to the monitoring, assessment and assurance of quality at UNG, and for presenting proposals and initiatives for the development of quality culture and updating of procedures and strategies, as well as for constant improvement of quality. At individual faculty, academy or school level, the responsibility for these activities is borne by respective quality coordinators, who are, by their function, also members of the University Quality Assurance Committee, within which they coordinate their activities. UNG Quality Assurance Committee is a permanent expert committee of the Senate of the University of Nova Gorica.

The primary mechanism for the monitoring, assessment and assurance of quality, for development of quality culture and updating of procedures and strategies for the assurance of quality and its constant improvement at UNG is self-evaluation. Self-evaluation is annually conducted according to a uniform methodology at all UNG units, and at the university as a whole, as defined and regulated by UNG Quality assurance manual.

The self-evaluation includes the analysis of activities and achievements, as well as proposed measures for future development. The essential elements of self-evaluations are the annual self-evaluation reports. Self-evaluation reports are drawn up by each of the UNG pedagogical units, and a separate self-evaluation report is drawn up at university level. All self-evaluation are annually published on the UNG website.

External supervision of the assurance of quality of all UNG operations is conducted through external supervision in the process of re-accreditation of UNG and its programmes by SQAA, as defined by the provisions of the national legislation.

External evaluation is one of the important tools in the process of improving the system for quality assurance at UNG, contributing to the development of quality culture at UNG and to the development of internal supervision of quality within the institution.Report drawn up by a group of experts during the process of external evaluation includes the strengths, examples of good practice, weaknesses and recommendations for improvement. All this is taken into consideration during the reformation process of the internal quality assurance system. The process includes short-term and long-term measures for elimination of discovered shortcomings and weaknesses with the purpose of ensuring constant improvement of quality in all areas of UNG operation.

UNG submitted to SQAA Council the application for re-accreditation of the University in September 2012. Expert team, nominated by SQAA Council, performed external evaluation of UNG on May 14 and 15, 2013. Based on the assessment and the report prepared by the expert team, SQAA Council granted the re-accreditation of the University of Nova Gorica on September 19. 2013 for the maximum period of seven years.

Regulations

The University of Nova Gorica Quality Assurance Committee

Rules of procedure of the Quality Assurance Committee

The president of the committee:
prof. dr. Iztok Arčon

Members:
prof. dr. Juš Kocijan, School of Engineering and Management
doc. dr. Blaž Belec, School of Environmental Sciences
prof. dr. Franc Marušič, School of Humanities
prof. dr. Artem Badasyan, School of Science
doc. dr. Jan Reščič, School for Viticulture and Enology
prof. dr. Martina Bergant Marušič, Graduate School
prof. dr. Peter Purg, School of Arts
Aleks Kojčinović, student representative