SGIQ

Introduction

Given the trust that society places on them to run independently, universities must guarantee that their actions ensure the achievement of the objectives related to their courses. Universities must therefore have formally established and publicly available internal quality assurance policies and systems.

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya has decided to present quality assurance systems models that are school-specific, that is, they are designed according to the characteristics and peculiarities of each school and adapted to such characteristics.

The UPC’s Doctoral School has an internal quality assurance system (SGIQ), the first version of which was approved by the Doctoral School Board on 23/02/2018 and received a favourable assessment by the UPC’s Planning, Assessment and Quality Bureau (GPAQ) on 26/02/2018. This system is periodically evaluated and revised. The system's latest revision, as well as the new versions of the processes that make up the SGIQ and are presented in this site, have been approved by the Doctoral School Board on 12/04/2024.

The implementation of the SGIQ ensures the quality and continuous improvement of all doctoral programmes taught at the UPC’s Doctoral School.

The SGIQ of schools consists of a manual and several processes that cover all the doctoral programmes taught at the UPC. 

The processes that integrate the Doctoral School’s SGIQ are classified into the following categories:

  • Strategic processes (preceded by PE): they provide guidelines for the rest of the processes and guide the school towards achieving its mission.

  • Fundamental processes (preceded by PF): they are directly linked to education and, therefore, they are the processes that have the most significant impact on students. They are the essential or characteristic processes aimed at satisfying the demands of the users.

  • Support processes (preceded by PS): they provide instrumental support to developing fundamental processes and strategic processes.

The UPC possesses cross-disciplinary processes, which are the same for all schools. The responsibility for cross-disciplinary processes does not lie with schools but with a particular general service of the University, which has the capacity to define the process, if applicable; set monitoring indicators; ensure its implementation; and guarantee its continuous improvement. The SGIQ of the Doctoral School defines in its processes how these are linked to the cross-disciplinary processes of the UPC and take part in their revision.

SGIQ documents

Internal Quality Assurance System

QUALITY MANUAL PROCESSES MAP

STRATEGIC PROCESSES

PE.164.01 Definition of Quality Policy and Objectives
PE.164.02 Roll-out, monitoring and revision of the SGIQ and documentation control
PE.164.03 Quality Assurance of Doctoral programmes (VSMA)
PE.164.03.01 Verification of Doctoral programmes (V)
PE.164.03.02 Monitoring of Doctoral programmes (S)
PE.164.03.03 Modification and withdrawal of Doctoral programmes (M)
PE.164.03.04 Accreditation of Doctoral programmes (A)
PE.164.04.01 Policy and Management of Teaching and Research Staff
PE.164.04.02 Policy and Management of PTGAS

FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES

PF.164.01 Course promotion and student recruitment
PF.164.02 Access, admission and enrolment
PF.164.03 Academic and career guidance for students 
PF.164.04 Supervision, monitoring and assessment of doctoral students
PF.164.05 Student support
PF.164.06 Industrial Doctorate Management

SUPPORT PROCESSES

PS.164.01 Material resources and services
PS.164.02 Handling of incidents, complaints, suggestions and compliments
PS.164.03 Collection of Information and Stakeholder satisfaction
PS.164.04 Information Publication and Accountability
DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

SGIQ IMPLEMENTATION

During the implementation of the SGIQ and in accordance with process SP.02 Revision and improvement of the SGIQ, the following reports have been produced and approved:

These documents are published in this section so that they are accessible to all stakeholders.