Verification and Modification

The regulatory framework establishes that official university programmes must undergo external evaluation procedures in accordance with the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG), with the aim of ensuring their quality.

Royal Decree 822/2021, of September 28, which establishes the organization of university education and the quality assurance procedure, sets out the quality assurance procedures for official university education; the first of these is the verification of the official study plans:

“The Council of Universities must verify that the study plans whose completion entitles to the award of an official university programme comply with the guidelines and conditions established by this royal decree and other regulations that are applicable.”

Depending on the nature and magnitude of the changes proposed in official university programmes, modifications are classified as (1) non-substantial: those minor changes that improve the programme and result from the monitoring that each institution carries out with the established periodicity in its internal quality assurance system; and (2) substantial modifications: those changes that improve the programme and also result from monitoring or requirements arising from previous evaluation processes, but exceed the scope of non-substantial modification, as they alter elements of the structure, nature, and/or objectives of the programme or other aspects of the curriculum.

Both procedures, verification and modification, in the case of AVAP, are covered under the same evaluation protocol.

In the attached documents on this page, you can find the application forms for non-substantial modifications of Bachelor, Master and Doctorate programmes.

The Protocol for Verification and Modification of official undergraduate and master’s programmes establishes that for the realization of the evaluation process of verification and modification of official university programmes, the AVAP will constitute committees and evaluation commissions integrated by academic personnel of recognized prestige experts in different fields of knowledge, university students, and professionals.

The evaluation bodies for the verification of programmes and their composition are as follows:

Specific Verification Committees: in case the AVAP considers it necessary, other specific committees may be created to respond to specific needs.

In the Regulation of Organization and Functioning (ROF) of the Branch Verification Committees and the Programme Verification Commission, their composition, functions, and operation are established.