Self-Assessment and Accreditation

Self-assessment and internal evaluation are, according to Legislative Decree 19/2012, institutional activities and must follow methodologies, criteria and indicators developed by individual universities in harmony with those defined by ANVUR.

For each of the Points of Attention of the Periodic Accreditation Model, the Universities, Degree Courses, Single-cycle MD study programmes in Medicine and Surgery (LM-41), PhD Courses and Departments visited are asked to express a self-assessment judgment accompanied by the documentary sources that can support it.

The Self-Assessment is thus a unique opportunity to condense all of the University's "organizational knowledge" into a single document, which can be profitably used both internally and externally and can be used as a reference for the daily work of managers at all levels, as a communication tool to and from teaching staff and administrative staff for the description of QA processes, and as a vehicle for promotion and communication to other stakeholders.

The drafting of the Self-Assessment represents a moment of organizational reflection, since it allows for the identification of both good practices to be disseminated within the University and the main areas of improvement with respect to which improvement actions can be defined and initiated.

The evaluation process in the area of Periodic Accreditation consists of the following main steps:

• documental analysis;
• institutional visit (distance visits of the selected study programmes and PhD programmes; on-site visit meetings and inspections at the facilities and infrastructures of the study programmes, PhD programmes and Departments);
• redaction of the CEV Report;
• response to any counter-arguments submitted by the University;
• collaboration in the drafting of the ANVUR Report.

The Periodic Accreditation of the institutions has a maximum duration of five years and is granted by the MUR, upon the proposal of ANVUR, following the verification of the permanence of the requirements for Initial Accreditation and the fulfillment of the Quality requirements in Annex C of the Ministerial Decree 1154/2021, based on the outcome of institutional visits carried out by y Evaluation Experts Panels (CEV).

The Periodic Accreditation of the University entails the accreditation of all its study programmes and of any eventual decentralised branches, with the exception of those evaluated negatively, which are suppressed.

ANVUR prepares a plan of on-site visits for Periodic Accreditation: in the selection of the Universities, ANVUR considers the deadlines of their Periodic Accreditation and of any elements that might discourage the visit, such as a recent change in the governance system (e.g. Rectors expiring or newly elected or changes in the non-state universities structure) or major system reorganisations.

The visits will have as their object of evaluation the University as a whole and a selection of some of its Study programmes, PhD programmes and Departments. The overall assessment will take into account both the assessment of the University evaluation domains and those of the selected study programmes, PhD programmes and Departments.

PHASES OF THE PROCESS

The Periodic Accreditation process consists of the following main phases:

• self-evaluation by the University and its Structures (please refer to the Guidelines for self-evaluation and evaluation of the quality assurance system in universities);
• documental analysis by the CEV;
• on-site visits (at a distance, for Study programmes and PhD programmes, and on-site at the University's headquarters and Departments);
• CEV Report;
• (if any) Counter-arguments of the University;
• ANVUR Report.

The ANVUR Report, accompanied with the proposal and judgment of Accreditation, is transmitted by ANVUR to the MUR and the University. Accreditation is granted by Ministerial Decree. ANVUR, after 10 days from the deadline within which the Ministry and the University can request a review of the evaluation, publishes the University and study programmes/Departmental Evaluation Forms and its Final Report.