Quality in teaching and the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is one of the basic goals of the Cantabria International Campus (CIC). In this sense the UC has initiated several different projects, all focusing on an improvement in infrastructure (see Transformation of the campus and new facilities), assessment of teaching quality and formation of the teaching body.
In 2010 the UC established an Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) for those programmes adapted to the EHEA, the first of which were the Official Master’s degrees for the academic year 2010 – 2011. In 2012 programme- contracts will be set up with those centres that have introduced the new degree and post-graduate study programmes. The programme, with a budget of 77.638,00 Euros has made it possible to define the procedures for information gathering on quality, to carry out information campaigns for students, to establish the procedure for the assessment of satisfaction for students, teaching staff and Human Resources and Administrative staff and then develop the corresponding IT applications.
The UC has also designed a Teaching Activity Assessment Programme (TAAP) to stimulate quality in teaching by employing measures that will relate assessment results to salary complements and promotion systems. This programme, which has been approved by Quality Agencies, will be introduced in the 2011 – 2012 academic year.
Also of great importance is the Permanent Formation Programme. In this programme, the area of Pedagogical Formation informs teachers as to what the requirements of the EHEA are, about the learning strategies to achieve greater student participation, about the new tutorial system and present assessment procedures.
In this context the UC also offers a catalogue of 78 Teaching Staff Formation Courses, where areas such as formation in competencies, learning strategies, assessment procedures, tutorials and virtual teaching techniques, research financing, the 7th Framework Programme for Research in Europe, evaluation, industrial property and patents, and the creation of technological based businesses are covered.
Furthermore, those teachers who have been contracted within the last 5 years must obtain the Diploma in Teaching Innovation, which accredits knowledge of new pedagogical methodologies. There is also a specific formation programme for new teachers.
The aim of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Programme is to help the teaching staff become more capable in their use of these tools in their teaching activity. This programme comprises 5 workshops which award the Diploma in Virtual Teaching. The programme covers such aspects as the use of mathematical platforms, the electronic portfolio or the design of interactive activities.
Other relevant actions in this area are the creation of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Commission together with the Secondary Education centres in order to correct those deficiencies detected by the PISA report, and the University-Vocational Training Commission to allow the recognition of credits between the University and the Higher Vocational Training education centres.