In early 2007, the National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation (ANECA), in collaboration with regional quality assessment agencies, launched the Support Program for the Evaluation of the Teaching Activity of University Professors (DOCENTIA). Its primary objective is to address the demands of universities and the educational system's need for establishing its own mechanisms to assess the quality of teaching activities undertaken by its faculty, thereby promoting the improvement and recognition of such activities.
Within the framework of the Standards and guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), drafted by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), the Quality Assurance of Teaching Staff (ESG 1.4) is included. This recommendation stipulates that institutions must ensure that their teaching staff is qualified, and their teaching skills are adequate. Similarly, standards established by The Joint Committee of Standards for Educational Evaluation in the document The Personnel Evaluation Standards have also been taken into account.
In January 2007, ANECA and AQUIB signed a collaboration agreement to implement the DOCENTIA Programme. In February 2022, the renewal of this agreement was signed, providing continuity to the previous arrangement.
The objective of the DOCENTIA program is to help universities in the design of their own mechanisms to manage the quality of the teaching activity of their teaching staff, favouring their development and recognition.
Design | In this phase, the university carries out the design of the teaching activity evaluation manual in accordance with the DOCENTIA model and sends it to the Agency for evaluation. | |
External evaluation of the designs | The model sent to the Agency is evaluated by an external commission. The purpose of this phase is to recognize compliance with the specifications and criteria of the DOCENTIA model. | |
Monitoring of its implementation | The universities whose designs have been positively evaluated start the implementation and send an annual report to the Agency. | |
Certification and monitoring of its certification | Once the implementation is certified, the university must send an annual certification follow-up report After the complete implementation of the design and successful completion of the follow-up phase, universities can choose to certify their evaluation procedures. Once certified, the university is required to submit an annual follow-up certification report. |
The universities of the Balearic Islands will develop their model and evaluation procedure of the teaching activity of its teaching staff, based on the DOCENTIA program model. This model will be sent to AQUIB, who will evaluate it in the different phases provided by the program: evaluation of the model, monitoring of its implementation, and certification of the implementation of the evaluation model.
The evaluation carried out by AQUIB in the different phases of the DOCENTIA program is performed following its own guidelines and will be done by an external evaluation commission chosen from a joint database with ANECA. These people will have received training from ANECA and AQUIB in coordination with the other Spanish agencies.
As per the agreement between AQUIB and ANECA, the evaluation bodies of ANECA, namely the Commission for the evaluation of the Design, Monitoring, and Certification of the models of the DOCENTIA Programme, and the Commission for the evaluation of the AUDIT and DOCENTIA programmes, serve as the designated entities responsible for assessing the model submitted by the University to AQUIB. The composition of the commissions can be consulted at the following link, in the section Assessment by committees.
The national register of certified universities within the framework of the DOCENTIA program is managed by ANECA. It can be consulted at the following link:
