GENERAL INFORMATIONS

The Degree Courses in Chemical Engineering and Food Engineering are provided of a quality system. From 2011 these courses of study (CdS) adhere to the CRUI / EUR-ACE Model for Quality Certification and the EUR-ACE Accreditation of Degree Courses and Master's Degree Programs in Engineering. The Italian reference for the Quality Certification and the EUR-ACE Accreditation is the QUACING agency. The internal reference to the University for quality is the CQA - University Center for Quality. The Degree Course in Chemical Engineering participated in the CampusOne Project from 2002 to 2004 (which was one of the integrated actions that the CRUI (Conference of the Rectors of Italian Universities) conducted with the involvement of seventy universities and three hundred degree courses) and was involved in the Campus Campania project for the application of a quality system to all the courses of study of the Salerno University.

The quality system in the university environment consists into realizing an organization of all the activities carried out in the CdS and in carrying out self-evaluation processes and external evaluation of the quality of the service offered. The idea behind this process is not only to propose an experimentation aimed at supporting the realization of the most innovative aspects of the reform of teaching autonomy ex DM 509/99 (and subsequent additions and modifications), but also to introduce an integrated vision the organization of university activities, which opens a new perspective for universities, able to speak to all those involved in the training process, which intensifies relations with the world of work, which shares the success factors and therefore knows how to recognize them and communicate them to the outside world. A perspective, in short, that makes university activities and skills an integrated and winning system, in a not only national but European horizon.

Objectives

It is a goal, which aims at improving the quality of the system, taking the best of the experiences carried out not only at the university level, but also in other realities, from the ISO methodologies of business origin to the strategy of total quality management, to other international experiences , however, contextualized in the university dimension, which due to its complexity, specificity and articulation must be able to benefit from successful experiences, applying them internally with balance and responsibility to obtain maximum benefits. The aim, however, is not to adapt its organization and structure to that of a company, which has its own peculiarities, but to succeed in defining its objectives and policies in a clear and coherent manner, as it presupposes the link between autonomy and responsibility.

The quality system

Methodology

The methodology of appliance of a quality system consists in the organization of all the activities carried out by the CdS in an integrated and functional structure and in the periodic evaluation of these activities focusing on the link that evaluation, analysis of the results, continuous improvement have with the government of an institution. "Knowing to decide" could be the formula that summarizes this concept. As is well known, the national university system must reach, in line with what is happening in other European countries, the accreditation of the universities and their CdS. Such accreditation, however it happens, can only find ready the CdS that are with responsibility exercised in the evaluation of the quality of the service offered, as this contains in nuce all the elements that contribute to the success of a Course, in all its dimensions. However, the evaluation of the CdS is an instrument that prescinds from accreditation, since its use helps first of all the institution to recognize its specific features, to reason its organization, to identify its objectives and its reference subjects, to analyze its shortcomings, understanding where, how and why they occur. In other words, it is an instrument of anamnesis focused on the idea that improvement must become part of the decisional logic that belong to a CdS. To this purpose, a strong involvement of all those who have always supported and nourished with their work the quality of the academic activities is necessary: ​​the teachers, who thanks to the experience acquired in the application of a quality system, are persuading the need to identify, within the processes of planning, delivery and monitoring of the teaching process, the procedural nodes that risk hindering their work or or even not to value the successes they are able to achieve.

The appliance

The collegiality of the assessment, the assumption of responsibility, the sharing of the objectives, the reporting of the analyzes in the appropriate offices of governance and management, the control and sharing of the results achieved and the success factors are the elements that substantiate and support the evaluation. There is therefore also a need for organizational, managerial, informative, didactic and structural support. The application of a quality system, therefore, allows the different segments of the university organization to be recomposed in a more unitary dimension. The educational management, in fact, is an integral part of the monitoring, evaluation and improvement of teaching activities. It is intended as the cornerstone of an organizational evolution that places the focus on continuity between the definition of objectives, planning of interventions and achievement of the objectives set and takes into account the dynamic circularity that must be established between monitoring, analysis and improvement of the quality. In consideration of the normative dictate, which refers to the process of consultation with the world of work and stakeholders in general, the CdS has a Steering Committee which includes representatives of these entities.

The audit

To better define the framework of what has been, is and will be the appliance of a quality system, it is important to mention the external evaluation or peer review. It is conducted by a group that includes both subjects from the university world and subjects that represent the needs of the outside world. In fact, the assessment teams provide: the indispensable competence of teachers (in the disciplinary area of ​​the Course); the presence of expert system engineers (always with experience in the university); an external representation coming from the business world. The external evaluation represents an opportunity of growth for the CdS, whatever the level of quality it has achieved. The prerequisite for a constructive external evaluation is a correct drafting of the self-evaluation report, to which all the subjects linked to the training process have contributed responsibly (firstly the presidents of the CdS, and therefore teachers, administrative, educational managers, as well as online in principle - even if it is an infrequent practice - students and representatives of the outside world). In fact, the self-assessment report is the document that provides the external evaluators with the first information on the degree course and on how the learning objectives and paths have been defined, the policies to achieve those objectives and all the other activities already mentioned above.

Conclusions

In conclusion, it is important to emphasize the complementary dynamism of self-assessment and external evaluation: a dynamism that must also become part of the genetic heritage of the courses of study, since in a society and in a modern economy, the university can and must give adequate and high-profile answers, whether it is opted for more vocational training dimensions, or prefer courses of preparation for research and academic excellence.