Teaching quality is a permanent aspiration for EINA. Since its founding in 1967 the centre has had the double target adapting the design learning processes to the requirements of higher education and to create an environment where the design practice incorporated the theoretical innovation intertwined with other image disciplines, which granted it the Creu de Sant Jordi by the Generalitat de Catalunya in 1987 and the Premio Nacional de Diseño by the Ministry of Industry for its “teaching merit” in the year 2000.
The binding agreement with the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona signed in 1994 and updated in 2009 and 2019, and the development of the Higher Degree in Design (UAB degree) fostered the adoption of measures aimed at improving effectiveness and efficiency in resource management and the commitment to quality and continual improvement. The development of the Design Degree and the Master in Research in Art and Design (MURAD), fully registered degrees in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) a new boost has been given to the inclusion of quality culture at EINA.
In order to guarantee the obtaining of the required quality levels EINA has developed an Internal Guarantee and Quality System (IGQS) according to the guidelines of the UAB and the Agency for the Quality of the University System in Catalonia (AQU), which allows the development of data obtaining mechanisms, documentation of the processes, their recognition and incorporation in the decision-making. All of them necessary processes to guarantee the university teaching quality and facilitating its objective assessment by third parties.
The introduction of quality cultura in EINA is concretised in three areas:
- Physical resources for learning: creation of a specialized library, a mockup and prototype workshop, a graphic creation workshop, an exhibition hall and an annual renovation and improvement plan of the IT resources available to students.
- Human Resources for learning: naming of a deputy director responsible for the implementation of the Internal Quality System as well as mobility and degree coordinators and the development of a Tutorial Action Plan (in Catalan).
- Management and administration resources: creation of data and information management and diffusion, adaptation and development of management IT apps and implementation of a self publishing (print electronic) service.
Internal Guarantee and Quality System (in Catalan)
Devised by the Quality Comission and approved by EINAS Board, it adapts the UAB manual model of Internal Quality System to EINA's specificities and its degrees. In this sense the IQS follows up on the internship experiences already placed in the centre (internship, mobility and graduate employability monitoring programmes, satisfaction surveys and end of studies projects etc.) to propose improvements in the fields of coordination, function assignment, documentation and public information.
The aims of the IGQS are:
- The creation of systematic information gathering and analysis processes to allow the assessing of the activity in the centre (enrolment rates, efficiency, satisfaction degree of agents etc.) and the adoption of improvement and rectification measures according to malfunctions.
- The periodical up-to-date, impartial and objective information publishing, both quantitative and qualitative, about the programmes and degrees. EINA is provided with an information network (self publishing service, its own website, intranet etc.) fostered by the IQS to ensure the data dissemination providing the necessary information about the title (objectives, profiles, graduate employment) and the involvement with the society of which EINA is part (research and transfer programmes).
- Establishing evaluation and teaching quality and teacher improvement procedures.
The Quality Comission is the organ of management of the Center in the field of teaching quality.
Organ Composition
- Irma Arrribas (Director EINA)
- Lara García Díaz (Degree Coordinator, PDI)
- Javier Nieto (Quality Coordinator, PDI)
- Vivian Fernàndez (Quality Technician, PAS)
- Rubén Alcaraz (Quality Technician, PAS)
- Andrea Balaguer (students' representavive)